“We are delighted to invite you to the pre-wedding festivities of Radhika and Anant at Reliance Greens, Jamnagar, from March 1 to 3, 2024,†said the official invitation received and accepted by some of the most rich and influential in the world. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock; Stephen Schwarzman, president of Blackstone; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, or Ivanka Trump, daughter of former US President Donald Trump, are just some of the billionaires who attended this weekend's pre-wedding celebrations for the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, owner of the Indian conglomerate. Reliance and one of the 10 richest men in the world. Anant Ambani, 28, will marry this summer his childhood fiancé Radhika Merchant, 29, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant, wealthy owner of a medical services empire, and they are not going to spare any expenses To celebrate. Something that they have already demonstrated in previous celebrations.
Indian weddings are known for their great ceremonial richness and display, as they usually last three days, but in the case of the Ambani family it is that multiplied by a thousand. This weekend was just the prelude to the official ceremony, which is expected to take place next July 12 and promises to be one of the largest weddings ever seen in the Asian country. Some local media already refer to it as “the social event of the year.”
Expectations are very high and no wonder, taking into account the splendor of what has been just the prelude. The party started last Friday, March 1. The guests were taken on private flights from the cities of Bombay and New Delhi to Jamnagar, in the Indian state of Gujarat, where the Ambani family has its own city: Reliance Greens, a complex for thousands of inhabitants, including its workers. own companies, with cricket fields, tennis courts, a hospital and its own wild animal reserve ―among which are large cats and more than 200 elephants―.
The invitation guide indicated that the theme of the first night was “an evening in Everland,” for which guests were required to attend in “cocktail chic” attire. The second night, however, the theme revolved around “a walk in nature”, set in the middle of the animal rescue center owned by Ambani, with a suggested “jungle fever” outfit. The last day was reserved for Tusker Trails y Hashtakshar, where the stylistic instructions for the guests were to wear traditional Indian attire. With so many themed parties, it is not surprising that attendees received a nine-page document specifying the instructions to follow regarding etiquette, with explanations and reference photos for the outfits, according to revealed some of them to The Indian Times.
One of the most anticipated and exclusive moments of the celebration was Rihanna's private concert. The singer from Barbados arrived in India on Thursday to attend the event and give a show on Saturday that was her first full-length performance in eight years – lasting almost 15 minutes. that she offered during the show Super Bowl halftime show last year―. The Ambanis managed, with a succulent check, to give a concert of 19 songs, among which were included Bitch Better Have My Money, Man Down, We Found Love, Work o Diamonds. Social networks were filled with excerpts of interpretations such as Wild Thoughts, Birthday Cake o Pour It Up and they even captured how the artist and businesswoman got off the stage to perform some dance steps with the guest Bollywood stars, such as Janhvi Kapoor. It is estimated that for this performance the singer received six million dollars (about 5.5 million euros), although some media outlets point to a higher amount, up to nine million dollars. But it is not the first time that the Ambanis have spent a large amount of money on hiring big stars: in 2018, Beyoncé participated in the wedding of Anant's older sister, Isha Ambani, and a year later Coldplay he acted in his brother, Akash Ambani's.
The celebration also included a light show in the sky, for which hundreds of drones were used to project a colorful image representing the bride and groom and several exotic animals: two birds, an elephant, a tiger, a lion and a peacock. “For my youngest son Anant's wedding to Radhika, I had two important wishes: First, I wanted to celebrate our roots. Second, I wanted the celebration to be a tribute to our arts and culture,” the groom's mother, Nita Ambani, said in a video for the press.
According to Indian media, the Ambanis hired 21 chefs to direct the various menus for the three-day celebration, in which a total of 2,500 unique dishes were served. The breakfast menu alone had more than 70 options, while lunch and dinner offered more than 250 options, so that no dish was repeated from one night to the next. The guide sent to guests also indicated that there would be a laundry service, ironing, makeup, hair and even people to help make the folds of the sari, the traditional Indian costume for women of several meters of fabric that must be be draped on the body.
According to the newspaper Times of India, invitations were also sent to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohamed bin Abderrahman Al Thani; to the queen of Bhutan, Jetsun Pema; Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen; the president of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab; to the former president of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga; and the former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. It was a private party, as the wedding will be, but a display of this magnitude is difficult to hide. The media have been able to photograph details of the party and the attendees themselves have shared their images on social networks. And this was just the prelude.