The Ambani Wedding Was a Grotesque Spectacle
The glitzy ceremonies underscored India’s dark new confluence of money and Hindu extremism.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and American wrestling star John Cena at the Ambani wedding. Photo: @JohnCena on X.
What brings together Shah Rukh Khan, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, John Cena, and Boris Johnson? The marriage of Anant Ambani, son of the richest man in India, and Radhika Merchant in a wedding so expensive and tasteless it will go down in history.
The festivities began in March when the youngest Ambani held a three-day “pre-wedding” party in the family hometown of Jamnagar, Gujarat, where the Ambanis own the largest oil refinery in the world. In May, they sailed the Mediterranean on a luxury cruise with 1,200 of their closest friends, docking in Portofino where they shut down the entire seashore to the ire of locals so Andrea Bocelli could serenade the young couple. Justin Bieber sang at their sangeet in July, and then, some $600 million later, they were finally married. Performing fealty at this kind of grotesque spectacle in the face of India’s surrounding poverty should give off the same smell that attending a Chechen warlord’s party does. Yet, over the course of their louche celebrations, the Ambanis welcomed freeloaders such as Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the Clintons, and the Blairs.
The family outdid each other night after night (and month after month), sporting obnoxiously extravagant jewelry. Nita Ambani, the mother of the blushing groom, wore a $59 million emerald necklace as she welcomed her guests with a terrifying rictus. To accommodate all the guests the Ambanis were flying over in a horde of private jets, the Indian government upgraded Jamnagar’s small airport into an international facility literally overnight, multiplying its staff and “deploying military and air force personnel in the service of the family.”
In 2013, Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan was asked if audiences would ever see a film with Bollywood’s three biggest stars altogether, SRK, as he is known, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan. “If you can afford, offer us a film,” SRK laughed before adding, “Son, you will go broke signing the three of us together.” But what is money to Mukesh Ambani – his $123 billion fortune makes him the 11th richest person in the world – who had all three Khans dancing at his son’s pre-wedding event like the sort of party entertainers a normal person might hire to perform magic tricks at their child’s birthday?...
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What brings together Shah Rukh Khan, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, John Cena, and Boris Johnson? The marriage of Anant Ambani, son of the richest man in India, and Radhika Merchant in a wedding so expensive and tasteless it will go down in history.
The festivities began in March when the youngest Ambani held a three-day “pre-wedding” party in the family hometown of Jamnagar, Gujarat, where the Ambanis own the largest oil refinery in the world. In May, they sailed the Mediterranean on a luxury cruise with 1,200 of their closest friends, docking in Portofino where they shut down the entire seashore to the ire of locals so Andrea Bocelli could serenade the young couple. Justin Bieber sang at their sangeet in July, and then, some $600 million later, they were finally married. Performing fealty at this kind of grotesque spectacle in the face of India’s surrounding poverty should give off the same smell that attending a Chechen warlord’s party does. Yet, over the course of their louche celebrations, the Ambanis welcomed freeloaders such as Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the Clintons, and the Blairs.
The family outdid each other night after night (and month after month), sporting obnoxiously extravagant jewelry. Nita Ambani, the mother of the blushing groom, wore a $59 million emerald necklace as she welcomed her guests with a terrifying rictus. To accommodate all the guests the Ambanis were flying over in a horde of private jets, the Indian government upgraded Jamnagar’s small airport into an international facility literally overnight, multiplying its staff and “deploying military and air force personnel in the service of the family.”
In 2013, Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan was asked if audiences would ever see a film with Bollywood’s three biggest stars altogether, SRK, as he is known, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan. “If you can afford, offer us a film,” SRK laughed before adding, “Son, you will go broke signing the three of us together.” But what is money to Mukesh Ambani – his $123 billion fortune makes him the 11th richest person in the world – who had all three Khans dancing at his son’s pre-wedding event like the sort of party entertainers a normal person might hire to perform magic tricks at their child’s birthday?...
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