'Mother of all weddings': Ambanis to marry in world's most expensive ceremony

Following nearly seven months of extravagant celebrations, Indian power couple Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant are set to marry in a ceremony thought to be the world's most expensive. 

India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is thought to be splashing out "upwards of $600 million [£463 million]" on the union between his son and pharmaceutical heiress Merchant, said The Guardian. The "eye-watering sum" only accounts for "0.5% of the Ambani fortune". 

The months of marathon partying has cemented the family as the "Windsors of India", journalist Leher Kala told the newspaper. An opulent wedding of this staggering scale is a "statement that the Ambanis have arrived: not just in India, but globally". 

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'The mother of all weddings' 

Ambani and Merchant were engaged in December 2023 in a "low key" proposal, but have been celebrating since January, "averaging an event every six weeks", said CNN.

One of the biggest took place back in March in the city of Jamnagar. It featured "choreographed Bollywood-style dancing, fireworks and a feast of 500 fish cooked by around 100 chefs", the news website said. A "communal dinner" was also laid on for "more than 50,000 villagers" from the area. 

This "mother of all weddings" has also involved events traversing the globe, said the BBC. Last month, the couple and a selection of guests set sail on a "luxury cruise along the stunning azure coastline of the Tyrrhenian Sea", enjoying Italy and the French Mediterranean, with plenty of "late-night revelry". 

But attendees don't just get to party with the couple, as the largesse of the Ambani family has also been "lavished upon their guests", said GQ India. A "gilded list" of gifts has featured private jet travel, designer bags, chauffeur-driven cars and gold chains. 

This weekend, the seven-month-long celebration will culminate in a three-day ceremony, where the couple will officially tie the knot. The dates have been determined by a "Hindu tradition of getting married on an auspicious date based on the couple's birth charts", said The New York Times. 

The details of the actual wedding ceremony itself have been mostly kept under wraps, said CNN, but "one thing is certain: There will be no expense spared".

'Biggest stars'

Of course, no wedding is complete, without a who's who of guests in attendance, and the Ambani affair has this in spades.

"From political heavyweights to actual heavyweights", the lavish Mumbai event has attracted a "glittering list of 1,200 guests", said The Telegraph, including Boris Johnson, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Mike Tyson and Kim Kardashian.

And aside from the guests who will watch the couple's nuptials, a host of "music megastars" have also descended on the Indian city to perform, the newspaper added. Many of "Bollywood's biggest stars" are present, but performances from Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry recently have also captured attention. 

But the celebrations have not been without controversy. Festivities in Mumbai have "caused chaos", said The Independent, with "traffic restrictions" imposed for the event bringing India's financial capital to a grinding halt.

Some have voiced displeasure at the scale of this "big fat Indian wedding", added the BBC, given "tens of millions live below the poverty line" in India, and are grappling with extreme "income inequality".