Is it Davos? No, it’s an Indian billionaire’s family wedding
CEOs, billionaires and pop star Rihanna (paid $9m to sing) rubbed shoulders at the impossibly lavish pre-wedding, three-day celebration for the youngest son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.
What do Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ivanka Trump, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Rihanna have in common? They all were in India this weekend to attend the impossibly lavish pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest billionaire, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
At every rung of the class ladder, Indian families splurge on weddings that span multiple days. But when India’s richest families host a wedding, and business dynasties unite, the wedding budget can run to millions of dollars and it is often hard to tell where socializing ends and networking begins. Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 billion.
Anant Ambani, 28 years old, is marrying Radhika Merchant, 29, who is also the child of a business tycoon. Her father, Viren Merchant, heads Encore Healthcare, a pharmaceutical and consumer-healthcare company.
Over the weekend, the normally quiet coastal Gujarat town of Jamnagar, where Reliance has its main oil-and-gas operations, hosted some 1,000 VIP guests from around the world. Guests were offered chartered-flight services from Mumbai and Delhi, as well as complimentary hair stylists, makeup artists and sari drapers, according to a guide for guests. A hospitality desk was set up to field questions and help with logistics.
The themed events included a formal dinner on Friday and a private concert performance by pop star Rihanna, her first in India. On Saturday, guests were invited to wear jungle-themed clothing and visit an animal-rescue center in Jamnagar, a pet project of Anant Ambani. Later that evening, family members and stars such as Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan performed dance routines. The celebrations ended with a dinner and a ceremonial signing event involving the couple on Sunday.
Rihanna performing at a wedding in India.
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Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger was in town for the festivities -- Disney and Reliance recently announced a deal to merge their streaming and television assets, creating a new Indian entertainment giant valued at $8.5 billion.
Fellow Indian billionaires Gautam Adani, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and industrialist Ajay Piramal were also there. Mittal is himself famed for the extravagant wedding he hosted for his daughter in France in 2004, which included an event at Versailles.
“Jamnagar looked such as Davos with so many business tycoons and celebrities in attendance,” said a person who attended the events, who didn’t wish to be named.
The wedding itself is slated for July and is likely to see an even more star- and CEO-studded guest list, judging by the nuptials that the Ambani family hosted for older sister Isha Ambani in 2018, when she married Anand Piramal, of India’s Piramal Group conglomerate. Beyoncé performed at that wedding, which was attended by former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton and top executives of major banks, telecom giants and energy companies.
The wedding comes as the younger Ambani generation has taken on more prominent roles in businesses of Reliance, which in recent years has branched out from its traditional oil-and-gas focus to telecom and internet, and e-commerce. Anant Ambani has joined his older twin siblings, brother Akash Ambani and sister Isha Ambani, on the boards of several Reliance group companies.
Succession planning is a growing concern in India, where family-run firms dominate the business landscape and many of the country’s best-known business leaders are at an age where they must think about passing the baton.
Mukesh Ambani has had his own personal experience with succession drama, after he was enmeshed in a bitter battle with younger brother Anil Ambani after the death of their father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded Reliance Industries. In 2022, the industrialist began outlining a succession plan when he handed over the reins of a prominent group company to his older son, Akash Ambani.
Preparations for the pre-wedding events have been under way for four months, according to people familiar with the planning. Ahead of the weekend festivities, the family held a traditional community meal service for residents of surrounding villages that aimed to feed about 50,000 people.
Guests at the weekend parties were served hundreds of different Indian, Japanese, European and local Gujarati dishes prepared by around 100 chefs gathered from around the country. As return gifts, they were given handmade candles with brass holders, silk items and silver jewelry to take home.
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