The Wedding of the Year: Mukesh Ambani's Son Marries Radhika Merchant in Star-Studded Celebration

2024-07-13 14:55:00

MUMBAI, India (AP) – His youngest son Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asiahe married his longtime girlfriend early Saturday in what many people call the wedding of the year, which was attended by global celebrities, business tycoons and politicians, highlighting the billionaire’s enormous wealth and its increase.

The wedding rituals, including the exchange of garlands by the couple and walking around the sacred fire, started on friday and were completed after midnight.

The IS Anant Ambani celebrated marrying Radhika Merchant held at the Jio World Convention Center in Mumbai and the family home owned by Ambani. The wedding culminated in months of wedding events featuring performances by pop stars including Rihanna and Justin Bieber.

The four-day wedding celebration kicked off on Friday with a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony and will be followed by a grand reception that will run through the weekend. The guest list it includes former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson; Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser; and Adele, Lana Del Rey, Drake and David Beckham, according to local media. The Ambani family has not confirmed the guest list.

Television news channels showed celebrities like Kim Kardashian in a red ensemble and a professional wrestler as Hollywood actor John Cena arrived.

Kardashian sisters Kim and Khloé took a ride in a motor rickshaw through the busy streets of Mumbai on Friday before joining the wedding ceremonies, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

International guests wore traditional clothes by major Indian fashion designers. They wore embroidered sherwanis — long-sleeved outer coats worn by men in South Asia. Cena came in a sky-blue sherwani and white pants. Nick Jonas wore a pink sherwani and white pants.

Bollywood icons Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor attended the wedding and danced to popular Hindi film songs. Indian cricketers, including icons Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, were among those invited.

Police imposed traffic diversions around the wedding venue from Friday to Monday to handle the influx of guests who had flown to Mumbai, where heavy monsoon rains caused flooding and flight disruptions in the past week.

Because of the procession and the display of opulence that comes with the wedding, there are many questions to be asked about rising inequality in India, where the gap between rich and poor is growing. The event has also provoked anger among some Mumbai residents, who say they are struggling with snarled traffic.

“It affects our earnings. I don’t care about marriage,” said Vikram, a taxi driver who uses only one name.

The groom’s father, Mukesh Ambani, is the ninth richest man in the world, with a net worth of $116 billion, according to Forbes. He is the richest person in Asia. His Reliance Industries is a conglomerate that reports over $100 billion in annual revenue, with interests that include petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecommunications and retail.

The Ambani family owns, among other assets, a 27-story family compound in Mumbai worth $1 billion. The building has three helipads, a 160-car garage and a private movie theater.

The groom, 29-year-old Anant, oversees the conglomerate’s green and renewable energy expansion. He also runs a 3,000-acre (about 1,200 hectares) animal rescue center in the family’s hometown of Jamnagar in Gujarat state.

The bride, Radhika Merchant, also 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren Merchant and is the marketing director of his company, Encore Healthcare, according to Vogue.

In this photo provided by Reliance Industries, Anant Ambani, left, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, holds hands with Radhika Merchant during their wedding ceremony at the Jio World Convention Center in Mumbai. (Reliance Industries via AP)

Ambani’s critics say his company relied on political connections during Congress-led governments in the 1970s and ’80s, and under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule after 2014.

The Ambani family’s pre-wedding celebrations were spectacular and star-studded from the start.

In March, they prenuptial bash spent three days for Anant which had 1,200 guests, including former world leaders, tech tycoons and Bollywood megastars, and performances by Rihanna, Akon and Diljit Dosanjh, a Punjabi singer who won international fame when he performed at Coachella. Tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates also attended the event.

This was the beginning of the mythical pre-wedding celebrations that grabbed headlines and started a frenzy on social media.