Ambani wedding: Billionaire’s son marries in lavish ceremony

MUMBAI, India (AP) — The youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, married his longtime girlfriend early Saturday in what many dubbed the marriage of the yr, attended by international celebrities, enterprise tycoons and politicians, highlighting the billionaire’s staggering wealth and rising clout.

The marriage rituals, together with exchanging garlands by the couple and strolling across the sacred hearth, started Friday and have been accomplished previous midnight.

The celebrations of Anant Ambani marrying Radhika Service provider befell on the Ambani-owned Jio World Conference Centre in Mumbai and the household residence. The wedding culminated months of wedding ceremony occasions that featured performances by pop stars together with Rihanna and Justin Bieber.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a reception organized by the Ambanis on Saturday night.

The Ambanis hosted a “blessing ceremony’’ for family and friends members to satisfy the couple and need them a contented married life.

India Right this moment tv information channel reported that the newlyweds touched Modi’s ft as a present of respect and sought his blessings.

The four-day wedding ceremony celebrations started Friday with the normal Hindu wedding ceremony ceremony and will likely be adopted by a grand reception to run by way of the weekend. The visitor listing contains former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson; John Kerry, the previous U.S. particular envoy for local weather, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser; and Adele, Lana Del Rey, Drake and David Beckham, in response to native media. The Ambani household didn’t affirm the visitor listing.

Tv information channels confirmed the arrivals of celebrities like Kim Kardashian, who was wearing crimson, {and professional} wrestler and Hollywood actor John Cena.

Kardashian sisters Kim and Khloé took a trip in a motorized rickshaw by way of bustling Mumbai streets Friday earlier than becoming a member of the marriage ceremonies, the Press Belief of India information company stated.

Worldwide friends wore conventional garments by main Indian trend designers. They placed on embroidered sherwanis — long-sleeved outer coats worn by males in South Asia. Cena got here in a sky-blue sherwani and white pants. Nick Jonas wore a pink sherwani and white pants.

Bollywood icons Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor attended the marriage and danced to widespread Hindi film songs. Indian cricketers, together with icons Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, have been among the many invitees.

Police imposed visitors diversions across the wedding ceremony venue from Friday to Monday to deal with the inflow of friends who flew to Mumbai, the place heavy monsoon rains have prompted flooding and flight disruptions for the previous week.

The extravaganza and the show of opulence that comes with the marriage have led many to boost questions on rising inequality in India, the place the hole between wealthy and poor is rising. The occasion has additionally sparked anger amongst some Mumbai residents, who say they’re scuffling with snarled visitors.

“It impacts our earnings. I don’t care a lot in regards to the wedding ceremony,” stated Vikram, a taxi driver who makes use of just one identify.

The daddy of the groom, Mukesh Ambani, is the world’s ninth-richest man, with a web price of $116 billion, in response to Forbes. He’s the richest particular person in Asia. His Reliance Industries is a conglomerate reporting over $100 billion in annual income, with pursuits that embrace petrochemicals, oil and fuel, telecoms and retail.

The Ambani household owns, amongst different property, a 27-story household compound in Mumbai price $1 billion. The constructing accommodates three helipads, a 160-car storage and a non-public movie show.

The groom, 29-year-old Anant, oversees the conglomerate’s renewable and inexperienced power enlargement. He additionally runs a 3,000-acre (about 1,200-hectare) animal rescue heart in Gujarat state’s Jamnagar, the household’s hometown.

The bride, Radhika Service provider, additionally 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren Service provider and is the advertising director for his firm, Encore Healthcare, in response to Vogue.

Ambani’s critics say his firm has relied on political connections throughout Congress Celebration-led governments within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, and beneath Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule after 2014.

The Ambani household’s pre-wedding celebrations have been lavish and star-studded from the beginning.

In March, they threw a three-day prenuptial bash for Anant that had 1,200 friends, together with former world leaders, tech tycoons and Bollywood megastars, and performances by Rihanna, Akon and Diljit Dosanjh, a Punjabi singer who shot to worldwide fame when he carried out at Coachella. The occasion was additionally attended by tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Invoice Gates.

It was the beginning of lavish, months-long pre-wedding celebrations that grabbed headlines and set off a social media frenzy.

In Could, the household took friends on a three-day cruise from Italy to France, which included Katy Perry singing her hit track “Firework” and a efficiency by Pitbull, in response to media studies.

The household additionally organized a mass wedding ceremony for greater than 50 underprivileged {couples} on July 2 as a part of the celebrations.

Final week, Justin Bieber carried out for a whole bunch of friends at a pre-wedding live performance that included performances by Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh and Salman Khan.

Ambani additionally made headlines in 2018, when Beyoncé carried out at pre-wedding festivities for his daughter. Former U.S. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have been amongst those that rubbed shoulders with Indian celebrities and Bollywood stars within the western Indian metropolis of Udaipur.