MUMBAI, India (AP) — Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest manmarried his longtime sweetheart early Saturday morning in what many called the wedding of the year, attended by celebrities, business tycoons and politicians from around the world and highlighting the billionaire’s staggering wealth and growing influence.
Wedding ceremonies, including the exchange of flower garlands by couples and walking around a sacred fire, It started on Friday It was completed just after midnight.
of Celebrating Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s marriage The wedding took place at Ambani’s Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai and at his family home, and was the culmination of months of wedding events that featured performances by pop stars such as Rihanna and Justin Bieber.
The four-day wedding celebrations will kick off on Friday with a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony, followed by a grand reception over the weekend. Guest List According to local media, guests included former British prime ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser, Adele, Lana Del Rey, Drake and David Beckham. The Ambani family has not confirmed the guest list.
Television news channels showed celebrities arriving, including Kim Kardashian, dressed in red, and professional wrestler and Hollywood actor John Cena.
Kardashian sisters Kim and Khloe took a rickshaw ride through the busy streets of Mumbai on Friday before attending a wedding, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
The international guests were dressed in traditional costumes. The men, dressed in dresses designed by famous Indian fashion designers, wore embroidered sherwanis, a long-sleeved outer coat worn by South Asian men. Cena wore a sky blue sherwani with white pants. Nick Jonas wore a pink sherwani with white pants.
Bollywood icons Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor attended the wedding and danced to popular Hindi film songs. Among the guests were Indian cricketers such as Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suriya Kumar Yadav.
Police diverted traffic around the wedding venue from Friday to Monday to cope with the influx of guests who arrived by plane to Mumbai. Heavy monsoon rain There have been flooding and flight disruptions over the past week.
The pomp and circumstance that accompanied the wedding has raised questions for many about growing inequality in India. The gap between rich and poor is wideningThe incident has also sparked outrage among Mumbai residents who say they are plagued by traffic congestion.
“It will affect my income. I’m not really interested in weddings,” said Vikram, a taxi driver who would only use his first name.
The groom’s father, Mukesh Ambani, is the ninth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $116 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and the richest person in Asia. He owns Reliance Industries, a conglomerate with annual sales of more than $100 billion that includes petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecommunications and retail.
Among other assets, the Ambanis own a 27-story family mansion in Mumbai worth $1 billion, which includes three helipads, a 160-car garage, and a private cinema.
The groom, Anant, 29, oversees the conglomerate’s renewable and green energy expansion and also runs an animal rescue center on 3,000 acres in his family’s hometown of Jamnagar, Gujarat.
According to Vogue magazine, the bride, Radhika Merchant, 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren Merchant and serves as marketing director for his company Encore Healthcare.
In this photo provided by Reliance Industries, Anant Ambani (left), son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, holds hands with Radhika Merchant during their wedding at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. (Courtesy of Reliance Industries via The Associated Press)
Ambani’s critics say the company’s management relied on political connections under Congress-led governments in the 1970s and 1980s, and then under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule since 2014.
The Ambani family’s pre-wedding celebrations were lavish and star-studded right from the start.
In March they They held a three-day pre-wedding party. Anant’s event attracted 1,200 guests, including former world leaders, tech moguls and Bollywood A-listers, and featured performances by Rihanna, Akon and Diljit Dosanjh, the Punjabi singer who rose to global fame for his performances at Coachella. Tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates also attended the event.
It was the start of months of lavish pre-wedding celebrations that made headlines and caused a social media frenzy.
According to media reports, in May, the family took guests on a three-day cruise from Italy to France, where Katy Perry sang her hit song “Firework” and Pitbull performed.
The family also Mass wedding for over 50 underprivileged couples It will be held on July 2nd as part of the celebrations.
Last week, Justin Bieber performed in front of hundreds of guests at a pre-wedding concert that also included performances from Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh and Salman Khan.
Ambani was also in the news in 2018. Beyonce performed at her daughter’s pre-wedding celebration.Former US secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and John Kerry were among those mingling with Indian celebrities and Bollywood stars in the western Indian city of Udaipur.
