As London came to a standstill this weekend to celebrate and then commiserate the Euros, there was a wildly different public event shutting down the streets in Mumbai. Billed as the world’s most expensive wedding, the three day long nuptials of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant — the son of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, and the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoons — took place this weekend, totalling an estimated $600m.
As well as the Ambani’s already high profile status in India, their wealth has afforded the event an unbelievably high star quality globally, with pre-wedding performances from the likes of Rihanna, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, who all allegedly pocketed multi-million dollar cheques.
The event was frequently referred to as “India’s own royal wedding” by domestic media, with other commentators claiming that the Ambanis want to be seen as “the Windsors of India.”
And the guestlist for the big day was just as astounding, with Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, John Cena, Tony Blair, Boris and Carrie Johnson all in attendance. This Ambani wedding dethrones the last Ambani wedding — between Mukesh Ambani’s daughter Isha Ambani and her husband Anand Piramal in 2018 — as the most expensive wedding of all time, according to estimates. But it’s just another drop in the ocean for the Ambanis, with the $600m price tag only making up 0.5 per cent of their total wealth.
The insane opulence has drawn criticism across the world for showing a “blatant disregard” for poverty in India. But due to Mukesh Ambani’s status as a self-made man, many Indians are welcoming the celebrations, which were marked as a “public event” in the city of Mumbai, shutting down streets and diverting traffic for days.
The wedding saw performances from Nigerian rapper Rema and Indian singer Daler Mehendi, with videos of the sets quickly picking up traction on social media. The Ambani wedding first filtered into Western consciousness when videos emerged of Rihanna performing at the pre-wedding celebrations this March. The singer’s performance marked her first concert in eight years, apart from her appearance at the Super Bowl in 2023. She’s rumoured to have been paid $6m for the appearance.
At the same pre-wedding celebration, the 1,200 guests were also entertained by performances from Diljit Dosanjh, the first Punjabi singer to perform at Coachella, and Akon, as well as a light show made up of 5,500 drones. The guest list included Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Ivanka Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, who were all issued a nine-page dress code to match the “jungle” theme.
As for the outfits this time around: The groom wore a red and gold sherwani designed by Sabyasachi Mukherjee, while the bride wore a hand-embroidered bridal lehenga by Indian label Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla. Her outfit featured a 16-foot-long veil, as well as a seven-foot-long detachable train with her skirt.
