Ambani wedding: Celebrations for the son of an Indian tycoon continue

The lavish wedding celebrations for the son of Asia’s richest man continued on Saturday with a star-studded guest list that included Hollywood stars, international business leaders and two former British prime ministers.

Anant, the youngest son of billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani, and his fiancée Radhika Merchant, both 29, are tying the knot this weekend in Mumbai, India, after months of pre-wedding celebrations.

A blessing ceremony will be held on Saturday where the world’s rich and famous will greet and pay their last respects to the couple at a 16,000-capacity convention center owned by the Ambani family’s conglomerate.

This will be followed by a big party, at which, according to unconfirmed reports, pop stars Drake, Lana Del Rey and Adele will likely perform.

This was followed by an official ceremony and party on Friday evening, attended by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, actor John Cena and former British heads of state Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.

Among the hundreds of celebrities who took to the stage were FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Samsung chairman Jay Y Lee.

“Great wedding!” China’s ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, wrote on social media platform X, adding shots of the couple from the venue.

“All the best and double happiness to the newlywed couple!”

This weekend’s festivities will culminate with a reception party on Sunday.

The wedding events earlier this year included a party at the Ambani family home, where private performances by singers Rihanna and Justin Bieber and the unveiling of a specially built Hindu temple were also part of the celebrations.

Guests included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Ivanka, the daughter of former US President Donald Trump.

In June, the couple took a four-day Mediterranean cruise with 1,200 guests, while singer Katy Perry performed at a masked ball at a French castle in Cannes.

The Backstreet Boys, US rapper Pitbull and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli also provided entertainment.

Rajan Mehra, managing director of charter airline Club One Air, told Reuters the family had rented three Falcon 2000 jets to transport wedding guests to the numerous events taking place this week.

“Guests come from all over and each plane will make multiple flights across the country,” he said.

On Wednesday, the family held a Bhandara – a community festival for underprivileged people.

Anant’s father Mukesh, 66, is chairman of Reliance Industries, a family-run conglomerate that has grown to become India’s largest company by market capitalization.

According to Forbes, the patriarch is the eleventh richest person in the world with a fortune of over $123 billion.

The family’s lucrative interests include retail partnerships with Armani and other luxury brands, more than 40 percent of the Indian mobile phone market and a cricket team in the Indian Premier League.

His 27-storey family home, Antilia, is one of Mumbai’s most iconic landmarks. It reportedly cost more than a billion dollars to build and he employs 600 permanent staff.

Merchant is the daughter of well-known pharmaceutical magnates.

Major roads in Mumbai will be closed for several hours a day until the celebrations end on Monday, while social media will be flooded with minute-by-minute updates.

But the extraordinary wealth has also led to backlash.

Residents of the city complained that the road closures had worsened traffic problems caused by the monsoon floods, while others criticized the ostentatious display of wealth.

The Ambanis have not revealed how much this wedding is costing them, but wedding planners estimate that they have already spent between 11 and 13 billion rupees ($132 million to $156 million).

According to rumors, Rihanna received $7 million (£5.5 million) for her performance, while Justin Bieber is believed to have received $10 million.

An unnamed Reliance executive said in a statement to reporters that the event was a “powerful symbol of India’s growing standing on the world stage.”

However, opposition politician Thomas Isaac described it as “obscene”.

“Legally it may be their money, but such ostentatious spending is a sin against Mother Earth and the poor,” he posted on X.