Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man, married pharmaceutical heiress and childhood sweetheart Radhika Merchant on Friday in a star-studded affair attended by global celebrities, politicians, Hindi and south Indian cinema personalities and almost all the top cricketers of the country.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe, Nigerian rapper Rema, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and global business magnates from Amin Nasser, the CEO of oil giant Saudi Aramco, to Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Lee and Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of pharmaceutical giant GSK Plc, were among those in attendance for the event, which has been dubbed the “wedding of the year”.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani with wife Nita Ambani, sons Akash and Anant Ambani, daughter-in-law Shloka Mehta Ambani, daughter Isha Ambani and son-in-law Anand Piramal pose for photographs as they arrive for the wedding of Anant and Radhika Merchant at Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on July 12, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI
Almost all the top Bollywood actors from Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan were present on the occasion, most of them accompanied by their families, while from the South, superstars Rajinikanth, Ram Charan and Mahesh Babu attended the event.
The wedding was attended by the entire world of Indian cricket – from legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to yesteryear greats like Krishna Srikkanth and the latest stars like Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.
Anant, 29, married Radhika, the daughter of Indian pharma tycoon Viren and Shaila Merchant, in a traditional Hindu ceremony at Jio World Drive in Mumbai, a convention centre built and owned by the Ambani family.
Earlier, the groom, dressed in an orange sherwani, left the Ambani family residence Antilia in a stunning red car adorned with white flowers for the convention centre where the ‘baarat’ gathered for the short journey to the mandap.
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Pastel colours by designer duo Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla dominated the outfits of the Ambani family – from father and chairman of oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Mukesh to mother Nita, sister Isha and her husband Anand Piramal and brother Akash. The only exception was Akash’s wife Shloka Metha who wore a stunning hot pink lehenga embellished with crystals.
And the guests too followed the dress code – both Indians and foreigners.
American actor and rapper John Cena and Tamil superstar Rajinikanth danced in the ‘baaraat’ along with Anil Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and groom Anant Ambani. Shah Rukh Khan hugged Nita and danced with her, while Nita and her husband welcomed King Khan and his family.
Former WWF wrestler and actor John Cena arrives to attend the wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, at Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on July 12, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI
Some women like Ananya Pandey had the message ‘Anant Brigade’ written on their dresses to join the wedding procession. Some other women had ‘Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi’ written on them.
The three-day wedding ceremony is the final stop in a series of lavish parties hosted by the family since March. The couple got engaged in January 2023 and the Ambani family has hosted three lavish pre-wedding parties.
First, a three-day pre-wedding celebration was held in March at the family’s refinery township in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with a guest list of 1,200 that included tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and a special performance by Rihanna.
David Blaine performed magic tricks and the festivities also included a visit to Ambani’s ‘animal rescue centre’ that houses exotic animals.
In May, the Ambani family took a four-day Mediterranean cruise, starting from the Italian city of Palermo, which included on-deck concerts by the Backstreet Boys, Pitbull and David Guetta and a performance by Katy Perry at a masquerade ball at the Château de la Croix des Gardes mansion in France. DJ David Guetta played at a toga party at sea. The cruise ended in Portofino, Italy, where tenor Andrea Bocelli enjoyed the party in the town square.
Last week Justin Bieber performed at the ‘Music’ night.
The lavish wedding celebrations will be a three-day affair, with a small dinner for special guests on Saturday and a grand reception on July 14.
The Ambani family did not reveal how much Anant’s wedding would cost. But the lavish ceremony involved Rs 5-6 lakh per invitation card, a small silver temple and three Falcon-2000 jets were hired to fly the wedding guests to the event.
Rihanna was rumoured to be paid US$7 million and Bieber was paid $10 million (around Rs. 84 crores) for their performance.
Mukesh and Nita have also thrown lavish weddings for their other children in the past – Beyonce performed at daughter Isha Ambani’s 2018 wedding, which was attended by guests such as Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and a year later Coldplay’s Chris Martin performed at Akash’s pre-wedding party in St Moritz, Switzerland, and Maroon 5 at his wedding in Mumbai.
Isha’s 2018 wedding was reported to be the most expensive wedding ever in India, with some estimates putting it at up to $100 million.
Mukesh Ambani, 67, is currently the 11th richest person in the world with a net worth of US$119 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has spent the past two decades transforming Reliance Industries, founded by his father in 1966 as an oil and petrochemicals giant, into a global empire spanning telecommunications, retail, financial services, cricket and luxury fashion.
Anant Ambani is the youngest of his three children, all three of whom are on the board of Reliance Industries. He is involved in Reliance’s energy business and is on the board of Reliance Foundation.
The guest list includes former Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Anant had styled the sherwani, which featured a bandhgala neckline, intricate golden embroidery, front buttons adorned with precious gems, full-length sleeves and padded shoulders, white pyjamas, beige sneakers adorned with gold sequins, and a gold elephant brooch.
Not only did the Ambani family dress the groom in traditional attire, but the guests who attended also wore designer Indian attire.
John Cena arrived at the wedding in a powder blue bandgala with silver embroidery. Superstar Rajinikanth, daughter Soundarya and her husband and son wore traditional Tamil attire.
The Kardashian sisters, who arrived here for the red carpet welcome at the Taj Mahal Hotel late on Thursday night, took an auto rickshaw ride through the bustling streets of Mumbai ahead of the wedding. The sisters are said to have brought along a team of stylists, including celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton and a group of producers, to capture every detail of their trip.
