Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
In India, the word “Ambani” is synonymous with massive wealth. The family’s 27-storey mansion that towers over Mumbai is the world’s most expensive home. Until this weekend, India’s most lavish wedding took place in 2018, when the Ambanis spent almost $100 million on their daughter’s nuptials. But Mukesh Ambani, an industrialist worth an estimated $120 billion, stepped it up for his youngest son Anant Ambani’s wedding to Radhika Merchant, the daughter of a pharmaceutical tycoon. Former British prime ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson joined the celebrations alongside socialites Kim and Khloé Kardashian, with the actor and wrestler John Cena donning a blue Sherwani. “There was a time when opulent wealth was something to be hidden in India. But clearly, that has changed now,” says the Indian journalist Shoib Daniyal.
Bollywood actors incuding Shah Rukh Khan danced, while Samsung chairman Jay Y Lee, Fifa boss Gianni Infantino and former US Secretary of State John Kerry were in attendance at the 16,000-capacity Ambani-owned Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.
Justin Bieber performed at the Sangeet ceremony, a traditional music and dance night ahead of the nuptials, for a reported $10 million.
The prequel(s). In March, a pre-wedding party in the western state of Gujarat’s Jamnagar – the family’s hometown – included a feast of 500 dishes for 1,200 guests; a light show featuring 5,500 drones; a jungle-themed party that came with a nine-page dress code and choreographed Bollywood-style dancing and fireworks. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton and Ivanka Trump were among the guests.
That was followed by a four-day European cruise for 800 guests aboard a luxury chartered ship, beginning in the Sicilian city of Palermo and ending in Rome. There were on-deck concerts from the Backstreet Boys, David Guetta and Pitbull.
Many have used the wedding’s opulence – reportedly costing $600 million – to criticise the rising wealth gap in India.
“Nothing indicates that the marriage of the millennium had the enthusiastic approval of 'most Indians.’ But it certainly won (or purchased) the hearts and pockets of a nauseatingly narcissistic elite,” Indian author and journalist P Sainath wrote on X, pointing out that Ambani’s wealth is 7.5 times India’s agriculture budget.
The richest 1 per cent of Indians earned 23 per cent of national income last year – the highest level recorded since the 1920s – and hold more than 40 per cent of the country’s total wealth, according to a recent report by economists including Thomas Piketty.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, escorted by Mukesh Ambani, blessed the couple at a ceremony on Saturday. They in turn, in keeping with tradition, touched his feet.
“Much of the political climate encourages crony capitalism,” Daniyal says. “We can clearly see this in the symbiotic relationship that Modi has with Ambani as well as Adani [another industrialist billionaire]. And remarkably, this relationship and the conflicts of interest needn’t be hidden anymore. It can be publicly celebrated.”
