When the son of Asia’s richestman gets married, the celebrations are expected to be lavish. But thebreathtaking scale of the festivities held for the youngest son of Indianbusiness tycoon Mukesh Ambani has become the talk of the country.
Anant Ambani tied the knotwith his fiancée, Radhika Merchant, Friday in Mumbai at a star-studded eventwhere the guests included reality TV star, Kim Kardashian, actors Nick Jonas,Priyanka Chopra and John Cena, former British prime ministers Tony Blair andBoris Johnson, as well as the who’s who of India from Bollywood stars andpoliticians to top businessmen.
The nuptials marked neitherthe start nor the end of the extravaganza. More parties are in store for theweekend.
They will cap months-longpre-wedding bashes where international pop stars Justin Bieber and Rihanna haveperformed, and India’s most popular actors have shaken a leg.
In India, where weddings havelong been a display of status and wealth, the Ambani gala has surpassedanything the country has seen so far.
For some it marked the arrivalof Indian billionaires and their growing global clout. Others saw the glitzycelebrations as shining a light on the country’s growing wealth inequalities.
Mukesh Ambani’s wealth isestimated at $124 billion, according to Forbes. The family’s sprawling businessempire, Reliance Industries, spans interests in petrochemicals and oil and gasto telecoms and retail.
"If you look at it, inthe past, it was the great Indian maharajas who lived and celebrated on thisscale. The maharajas of this new era in India are really thebillionaires," Harish Bijoor, a brand consultant, told VOA in a phoneinterview.
"When guests come fromacross continents, it shows not just that they know how to do it in style, butalso the influence they command," he added.
Declaring the wedding a publicevent, Mumbai police blocked key roads around the Ambani-owned Jio ConventionCenter where ceremonies began last Friday.
Many offices in the busybusiness hub where it is situated declared work-from-home for their staff.
The celebrations have set offa social media frenzy, with millions of Indians transfixed by the events.
They have closely scrutinizedthe grand, sequin-studded outfits and stunning jewelry that included outsizedemeralds and diamonds worn by the Ambani family.
There has been hugespeculation around how much the parties cost. The wedding invitations were madeof silver and gold, according to local media reports.
While the events were private,leaked videos have made the rounds on social media.
Reliance's official Facebookpage has also shared some video clips of dance performances and photographs ofthe events.
The list of VIP’s who havejoined in the celebrations is long. In March, at a three-day prewedding eventin Ambani’s ancestral hometown of Jamnagar, among the 1,200 guests were techbillionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner anda string of Bollywood stars.
One hundred chefs whipped upsome 500 dishes. Rihanna performed for the guests.
In May, the Ambanis went on afour-day European cruise on a chartered luxury ship that began in the Siciliancity of Palermo and ended in Rome.
Videos showed performances onthe liner by the Backstreet Boys, Pitbull and David Guetta and singer KatyPerry belting out numbers at a masquerade ball in Cannes.
In Indian living rooms, wherecricket, Bollywood and politics usually hog the conversation, the Ambaniwedding has become the hot topic of conversation, with opinion divided onwhether the celebrations are too ostentatious or the billionaire family had theright to spend their money as they want in a country where the big fat Indianwedding is the norm for even the middle class.
India’s wedding industry isworth $130 billion, nearly double that of the United States, according to areport by Jefferies, a global investment firm.
"Why should the Ambanismake it a small affair? If they have the money, then why should they not splashon their wedding when the average Indian also does the same?" BinduSachthey, a New Delhi resident told VOA.
"I don’t agree withpeople who criticize or troll them for this gala affair. I am enjoying having apeek into how the ultrarich celebrate."
As the Ambani fortunes havegrown in recent decades, the family has scaled up its lifestyle. Their Mumbairesidence, built in 2010, is a 27-story private apartment building, with threehelipads, a private movie theater and a hanging garden.
Some said the ostentatiouscelebrations made them uncomfortable in a country where millionaires andbillionaires are multiplying as the economy grows, but the per capita annualincome is still about $2,700.
India has 200 billionaires,worth around $1trillion in wealth, nearly a quarter of the country’s 2023 grossdomestic product, according to Forbes.
"I am very ambivalentabout these celebrations. I would rather Indian billionaires do more forphilanthropy and use their wealth for society rather than spend in thismanner," said author Gurcharan Das, author and former top businessexecutive told VOA.
"But if some of theinfluential and rich foreign guests who came here decide that this is the timeto invest in a rising India, I would say brilliant, the wedding would haveserved a purpose."
