Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s nuptial celebrations: The most extravagant wedding of the decade kicks off

Anant Ambani had no intention of getting married. That’s what the 29-year-old son of businessman Mukesh Ambani, owner of the Indian conglomerate Reliance and one of the 10 richest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of about $116 billion, told India Today. “Since childhood, I had thought that I would never get married because I was always devoted to taking care of animals,” he said. “But when I met Radhika, I saw her sharing the same values as me. She has this sense of giving and nurturing towards animals.”

While Ambani is the son of the richest man in Asia, Radhika Merchant, 29, is the daughter of Viren Merchant, the wealthy owner of a medical services empire. Now that Ambani has changed his mind about getting married, the two have decided to do so in style. Their three-day wedding — which begins on Friday — is considered to be the most extravagant wedding of a decade. The most extravagant wedding of the previous decade was probably his sister’s 2018 wedding to Isha Amani, which cost $100 million and included a Beyoncé concert.

Ambani and Mercant’s wedding begins on July 12 and continues until Sunday, July 14, dates chosen for allegedly being especially favorably, according to the couple’s astrological charts. The wedding will take place in two of the most emblematic places in Mumbai: the 27-story Antilia residence, owned by the Ambani family, valued at around $1 billion, and the Jio World Convention Centre, a large venue with capacity for more of 16,000 people. The rest of the details — from the guest list to the planned performances and shows — are being kept secret for now. But given the scale of the couple’s pre-weddings, it is likely to be a lavish event.

Proof of this is the wedding invitations, some of which were hand-delivered by the couple themselves. As seen in videos shared by their guests on Instagram, the invitations arrived in a large red lacquered box that, when opened, revealed a detailed miniature silver Hindu temple along with another box with golden images of various Hindu deities. When opened, the box played mantras. The invitation included another box with dried fruits, sweets, a handwritten note from the couple and delicate embroidery.

The extravagant wedding invitations come as no surprise after the couple’s multimillion-dollar pre-wedding parties. The first was held at the beginning of March at Reliance Greens, in Jamnagar (India). The party lasted three days and included more than 1,000 guests, including Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney; and Ivanka Trump, daughter of former U.S. president Donald Trump.

There was a private concert by Rihanna, which marked her first full-length performance in eight years, beyond her 15-minute Super Bowl halftime show in 2023. According to media outlets, the singer was paid between $6 million and $9 million for the performance. The pre-wedding party also featured a light show with hundreds of drones illuminating the sky; 2,500 unique dishes prepared by dozens of chefs — the breakfast menu alone had more than 70 options —; and staff hired specifically to help the guests put on the sari they were supposed to wear on the last night, according to the 10-pag-long style instructions.

For the second pre-wedding, at the end of May, the couple flew to Barcelona. This was a more selective event, with around 800 guests who traveled on 15 private flights from Bombay to embark on a luxurious cruise that sailed the Mediterranean for four days.

“It was a retreat for the people that have contributed to our life in different ways. “We had people from the ages of six months going up to 90 years,” Merchant told Vogue, toning down the scale of the party.

On this occasion, instead of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, they were joined by the likes of stylist Law Roach, who was in charge of styling Isha Ambani, Anant’s sister, for the June cover of the Indian edition of Vogue. As well as 600 employees, who were tasked with serving the guests. There was a surprise concert by the Backstreet Boys, and David Guetta was the cruise’s official DJ. During their stopover in Cannes, there was a surprise concert by Katy Perry, and when they boarded, another one by Pitbull. As if that were not enough, at a stop in Portofino, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performed I Found My Love in Portofino and Can’t Help Falling in Love for them. “It was just the most magical evening,” Merchant told Vogue. “I had goosebumps.”

The pre-wedding parties have been private, but impossible to hide from the public. Details of the nuptial celebrations have been shared on social media by guests and media agencies. This was also the case for the third pre-wedding party: a Justin Bieber private concert that took place in Bombay on July 5. According to several international and local media, such as the Hindustan Times, it costs around $10 million to hire the Canadian singer, who is the bride’s favorite artist.

After his one-hour performance, Beiber invited the couple to join him on stage to congratulate them on their engagement. Then he flooded his Instagram profile with photos and videos of the event, in which he looks exultant, no doubt pleased about earning $10 million in an hour.

The unbridled decadence of the nuptial celebrations has also attracted a lot of criticism. At the beginning of July, CNN reported that the opulence of the event is in start contrast to the poverty affecting tens of millions of people in India and highlights the growing gap between the rich and poor. “I recognize that this is a privilege few people experience, and I truly feel blessed,” the bride told Vogue about the celebrations.

To appease criticism about the lavishness of the wedding, the Ambanis have held charitable acts before some of the celebrations, including a mass wedding for 50 “underprivileged” couples in the city, who were gifted jewelry, $1,200 in cash, as well as household items and groceries for a year, according to CNN.

Merchant and Ambani are animal lovers. The groom’s family has built the largest zoo and animal shelter in the world in the Indian city of Jamnagar. The 1,200-hectare enclosure is home to more than a hundred species from every corner of the planet, including rhinos, okapis, leopards, lynxes and crocodiles.

“I hope that our wedding will bring global attention to Vantara, the largest animal rehabilitation center in the world, a project that my husband and I hold very close in our hearts,” Merchant told Vogue.

According to reports about the rehabilitation center, the hospital at Vantara has advanced medical facilities such as portable X-ray machines and hyperbaric oxygen chambers that ensure the well-being of more than 200 elephants through innovative treatments. Meanwhile in India, a country of more than 1.4 billion people, the public healthcare infrastructure continues to flounder, with a shortfall of more than 600,000 doctors and two million nurses, according to a report by the Washington and New Delhi-based Center for Disease Economics and Policy.

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