Inside the Lavish, Star-Studded Wedding of Asia’s Richest Man’s Son

The youngest son of Asia’s richest man recently married his longtime girlfriend after seven months of extravagant pre-wedding celebrations. Celebrities like Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra, John Cena, and politicians such as Tony Blair and Boris Johnson were among the high-profile attendees.

Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, tied the knot with Radhika Merchant in a traditional Hindu ceremony on Friday, 12 July, in Mumbai, Maharashtra’s capital. The festivities continued with a “shubh ashirwad” on Saturday—a ceremony where the couple received blessings from guests and elders—culminating in a “mangal utsav,” the reception.

The guest list was diverse, featuring Bollywood elites like Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Rajinikanth, and Amitabh Bachchan with their families. Other stars like Alia Bhatt and Ananya Pandey also attended. Global celebrities included Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach, designer Prabal Gurung, and former world leaders Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.

Several Indian politicians and chief ministers, among them Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, Aaditya Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, Devendra Fadnavis, and former President Ram Nath Kovind, were also in attendance.

Anant Ambani, 29, is the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, a Fortune 500 company. Mukesh Ambani has an estimated net worth of $113 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

Reliance Industries has interests in petroleum refining and marketing, chemicals, organized retail, telecommunications, and digital streaming services.

Radhika Merchant, also 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren Merchant and serves on the board of her father’s company, Encore Healthcare.

Videos circulating widely on social media show the Ambani family dancing with Indian singer Daler Mehendi, while Afrobeats star Rema entertained the guests with his hit song “Calm Down.”

The guests also enjoyed a lively wedding procession for the groom featuring live music and dancing. Videos of Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh dancing to popular Bollywood songs quickly went viral on social media.

The groom donned a red and gold sherwani designed by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, while the bride wore a hand-embroidered bridal lehenga by Indian label Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, featuring a 16-foot-long veil and a seven-foot-long detachable train.

Nita Ambani, the groom’s mother, wore an outfit crafted over 40 days by designers Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, along with artisans Vijay Kumar and Monika Maurya.

While the exact cost of the Ambanis’ wedding remains undisclosed, Indian media and wedding planners estimate the celebrations to exceed $300 million, sparking both fascination and criticism from the public.

Mumbai police imposed traffic restrictions in the city from 12 July to 15 July around the wedding venue located in the central business district.

Residents faced traffic challenges, and bankers had to adjust their plans, opting to work from home.

“It affects our earnings. I don’t care much about the wedding,” Vikram, a taxi driver, told the Associated Press.

“In a country where the monthly income of 90 percent of households is below ₹10,000 (approximately £94), an Ambani wedding costing $320 million (₹2,673 crores) is obscene. Legally it may be their money, but such ostentatious expenditure is a sin against mother earth and the poor,” Thomas Isaac, an Indian lawmaker and economist, wrote on X.

The wedding cost alone is staggering, but The Guardian estimates that including the pre-wedding celebrations that began in March, the total could reach up to $600 million, amounting to just 0.5 percent of the Ambanis’ net worth.

The celebrations started in March with a three-day pre-wedding event in Mukesh Ambani’s hometown of Jamnagar, Gujarat. The guest list featured prominent figures such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump, the king and queen of Bhutan, and several world leaders.

A special glass palace was constructed for the event, featuring a spectacular light show with 5,500 drones and performances by Rihanna, Diljit Dosanjh, and Akon.

In May, a chartered cruise ship hosted 800 guests on a four-day trip through Europe, featuring performances by the Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, and opera star Andrea Bocelli.

Source: Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Guardian