Son of Asia’s richest man gets married in one of the most anticipated and lavish weddings of the year in India

 

Billionaire heir Anant Ambani will marry his longtime girlfriend Radhika Merchant later this month, in a lavish ceremony widely described as the country’s wedding of the year.

The extravagant pre-wedding celebrations have already created excitement in the Indian media and social media is abuzz with what’s to come.

In March, the couple hosted a three-day pre-wedding party in the western city of Jamnagar, which was attended by around 1,200 high-profile guests, including Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

An elaborate light show featuring 5,500 drones lit up the sky above a specially-built glass palace, where partygoers danced the night away to a performance by none other than Rihanna.

Then, one weekend in late May, the couple organized a four-day Mediterranean cruise for friends and family, with stops in Europe and a host of Bollywood stars, including performances by Katy Perry, the Backstreet Boys, and opera star Andrea Bocelli.

The Mumbai nuptials will take place from July 12 to 14 at Anant’s parents Mukesh and Nita Ambani’s home, a 27-storey residence called Antilia, and at the family-owned Jio World Convention Centre, a sprawling facility with a seating capacity of more than 16,000.

Details have been tightly guarded, but if pre-wedding events are any indication, the upcoming nuptials are set to be predictably grand. Here’s what we know.

Who are the bride and groom?

Ambani, 29, is the youngest son of Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, who has an estimated fortune of $118 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His son is responsible for leading the expansion of the energy sector of the family conglomerate, Reliance Industries.

The youngest of three siblings, Ambani graduated from Brown University. His brother and sister serve on the board of directors of Reliance and manage other parts of the company. Anant has been concerned about animal welfare since childhood.

She recently launched her most ambitious project yet, Vantara, a 3,000-acre animal sanctuary, which was visited by VIP guests dressed in jungle-themed attire during her pre-wedding bash in Jamnagar.

Merchant, 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren Merchant and works for his company, Encore Healthcare.

The New York University graduate told Vogue that she met Ambani through mutual friends during a car ride in 2017.

“That first meeting sparked something special between us and it wasn’t long before we started dating,” she said.

Merchant also has formal training in Bharatnatyam, a form of Indian classical dance.

Speaking about his future wife, Ambani said during a speech in Jamnagar: “I am 100% lucky. I feel like I met Radhika yesterday, but every day I am falling more and more in love.”

What can we expect from the wedding?

According to Hindu tradition, the couple’s wedding dates are said to have been chosen based on auspicious days in their birth charts.

Hindu weddings usually involve several events and take place over several days.

The festivities usually include a haldi ceremony, where guests apply turmeric paste to the bride and groom’s arms and faces for good luck and protection from evil spirits. Then there’s the mehndi, a ritual in which an artist paints intricate henna patterns on the hands of the bride and guests. The night before the wedding is usually reserved for the sangeet, when the bride and groom’s wedding procession dances for the guests.

According to a leaked wedding invitation published by ANI, one of India’s largest news agencies, the festivities will begin on July 12 with the “Shubh Vivaah” or “auspicious wedding” ceremony. The “Shubh Aashirwad” or “divine blessing” ceremony will be held the following day, and the festivities will conclude on July 14 with the “Mangal Utsav” or reception.

According to a video posted by ANI, the invitation was placed in a red box decorated with the image of Hindu god Vishnu on the front.

Manish Malhotra, one of the country’s most celebrated designers, has been appointed as the creative director of the wedding and will collaborate with Nita Ambani and numerous vendors to realise the family’s vision.

Malhotra told CNN that he leveraged Nita’s “visionary approach,” with his team creating wedding themes and experiences that “embody the essence of India, while reflecting the couple’s distinct personalities.”

“Every detail, from the decor to the cuisine, from the attire to the ambiance; every event, from the lively Sangeet to the ceremonial wedding day and the grand reception, is designed to immerse guests in an atmosphere of joy, love and celebration,” she explained via email.

The wedding will be star-studded. Actor Ranveer Singh and his wife and actress Deepika Padukone pose for a photo during their pre-wedding festivities earlier this year.

What can we expect from wedding fashion?

The bride and groom are expected to wear eye-catching attire that showcases Indian craftsmanship and textiles, local talent and pieces steeped in symbolism.

The outfits worn by the couple during their pre-wedding events included stunning pieces from top Indian designers such as Malhotra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Tarun Tahiliani.

Malhotra designed two lehengas that Merchant wore to the pre-wedding party. The gold piece was studded with 20,000 Swarovski crystals and employed the skills of more than 70 artisans, while an Art Deco-inspired blue lehenga took 5,700 hours to make.

Ambani’s looks were also bold. At one of the events in Jamnagar, he wore an ivory sherwani, a traditional two-piece Indian suit, designed by Rohit Bal, with a custom brooch by Lorraine Schwartz.

Luxury fashion brands were spotted teaming up with emerging labels. Merchant wore Versace to the March celebrations, a custom pink version of the gown Blake Lively previously wore to the 2022 Met Gala.

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On the Mediterranean cruise, Merchant wore a black and white dress designed by Hong Kong-born Robert Wun, with a love letter from her fiancé printed on the chiffon skirt. In coordination with Merchant, Ambani also wore a custom black suit designed by Wun, encrusted with jewels.

For the July wedding, Malhotra said his team had “dedicated several months of meticulous craftsmanship to create exquisite pieces.” While he was unable to reveal details of the gowns ahead of the occasion, he said work on some of them began before the pre-wedding festivities.

According to the wedding invitation, guests at the upcoming wedding will be expected to wear “traditional Indian” attire on Friday, which could include a sari for women and a kurta (loose trousers with a tunic) for men.

Guests were asked to wear “Indian formal” attire the following day and “Indian chic” for the reception on Sunday.

Malhotra described the “Indian chic” dress code as something that “marries traditional Indian elements with contemporary fashion.”

For the couple, she said, this translates into “stunning ensembles that honor our rich cultural heritage while reflecting their personal style. Think intricate embroidery and innovative silhouettes that capture both tradition and modernity.”

As for the guests, Malhotra said, we can expect to see “timeless sarees and lehengas paired with modern blouses or traditional sherwanis with a contemporary twist.

“The key is to celebrate Indian craftsmanship while embracing a sophisticated and elegant aesthetic that is both timeless and fresh.”

What does it take to organize a wedding of this magnitude?

An event of this magnitude requires months of planning and likely involves hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make it happen.

“Any kind of mega project like this usually takes nine to 12 months of prep work and involves about 40 to 45 large agencies or partners,” Mareesha Parikh, a Mumbai-based wedding planner and founder of Swaaha Weddings, told CNN in a phone call.

Separate teams will likely handle bookings, entertainment, production design, logistics and other tasks during the show, he added.

The wedding industry in India has evolved dramatically over the past decade, with Bollywood and celebrity culture inspiring couples to plan grander and even more expensive events.

But with intense public fascination with Ambani and Merchant’s nuptials comes some criticism. For some, the opulence of the event stands in stark contrast to the poverty that affects tens of millions of people in the country, and points to what critics say is a growing wealth gap between rich and poor.

The Ambanis, aware of their privilege, have performed acts of charity before some celebrations. On Tuesday, they hosted a mass wedding for 50 “underprivileged” couples in the city, gifting them jewelry, household items and groceries for a year.

Now valued at about $130 billion, according to the Confederation of All India Traders, the wedding sector is the country’s fourth-largest industry, employing millions of people. In December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a “get married in India” campaign to keep money spent on weddings within the country.

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“The areas of specialization have also grown,” Parikh said. “Take gift baskets. We used to source and package them ourselves. Now we have a separate agency that does the sourcing and a separate agency that does the packaging.”

Vanessa Almeida, owner of Goa-based The Gift House, which was responsible for packing around 8,000 gifts for Ambani’s guests in Jamnagar, told CNN that she was in the city for two weeks to ensure all preparations were going as planned.

“During the event, we were asked not to take pictures of the event, the people, or the work we were doing,” he said in a telephone interview.

“They even very respectfully asked the guests not to do so, since they had their own teams capturing everything.”

[CNN]

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