Boujee in Bandra: The Record shattering Ambani-Merchant Wedding

On 12 July 2024, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant finally tied the knot, wrapping up an eight-month celebration. Anant, the youngest son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, aims to make the family's company, Reliance, a net zero-carbon company by 2035. Merchant is the heiress of a pharmaceutical firm worth millions.

Glitz and Glamour at Ambani wedding

Ambani and Merchant got engaged in December 2023. In January, they threw a lavish engagement party attended by Bollywood elite. Early in March, they had a massive "pre-wedding" party for their Hastakhar, or signature ceremony at Vantara, a 3000-acre animal reserve within Reliance's Jamnagar Refinery Complex (Anant has been an animal lover since he was a child). The bash saw Rihanna perform for USD 7 million, an extensive drone show, and several custom couture pieces on show. Most importantly, the celebration brought so much traffic to Jamnagar that the Indian government honorarily designated Jamnagar Airport an International airport. Later in June, 1200 high-profile guests were whisked away for a Mediterranean cruise featuring performances from Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli, and David Guetta, costing nearly USD 900 million according to CNN. The Ambanis then flocked back to Mumbai in July for three more pre-wedding ceremonies- a sangeet (or dance night) headlined by Justin Bieber, a garba on a palatial stage decorated by a Bollywood set designer, and a mameru.

The three-day wedding was attended by a host of local and international celebrities. Some notable guests include Boris Johnson, Tony Blair, the Kardashians, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, Ivanka Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Han Jong hee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and several Maharashtrian politicians. The family reportedly chartered three Falcon-2000 jets and over 100 private planes to ferry this lengthy roster of guests to and from Mumbai. Members of the Ambani family (including the pets) were decked out in their most expensive jewelry. The groom and bride's matching outfits reportedly cost INR 214 crores. The groom distributed 18k gold Audemars Piguet watches as gifts for his close friends and a few Bollywood actors. The wedding took place at the Jio World Drive, an 18-acre convention centre/mall built by the family. The centre was transformed into a diorama of Varanasi, a Hindu holy city. The Ambani matriarch even flew in local craftsmen, street food stalls, bangle sellers, puppeteers, and astrologers from Varanasi to "fulfill the fantasy," a la Marie Antoinette. The center is located in the country's most expensive commercial district- the Bandra Kurla Complex, the perfect backdrop for the most expensive wedding in history.

Discourse around Costs and Influence

According to The Hindu, the Ambani wedding is estimated to have cost INR 5000 crores (or USD 600 million). To put that number into perspective, one publication announced that that was enough money to host the Oscars for a decade. Another mentioned that the wedding cost far exceeded Kerala's 2024 education budget. The cost of Nita Ambani's now-infamous INR 500 crore emerald necklace rivals the annual budget for Tamil Nadu's breakfast scheme, which ensures that impoverished children get at least one meal daily. Yet, this amount is mere pittance for the Ambani family, whose wealth is estimated at over USD 100 billion. The wedding cost the family only about 0.5% of their total wealth. The average Indian wedding costs a family anywhere between 5% to 15% of their total wealth.

Reliance Industries is woven into every facet of the average Indian citizen's life. The company was instrumental in bringing 4G internet to the nation. Reliance has operations in energy, petrochemical refining, retail, textiles, telecommunications, digital streaming services, and education, among other industries. However, the wedding has reportedly not made many Indians happy, who feel that spending such a large sum of money in a country where 50% of the population falls under the poverty line is inexcusable.

Others have lauded the Ambanis for enabling the world to look past India's poverty and witness its grand culture instead. Some have argued that India’s fashion industry was greatly bolstered by the wedding, and that the wedding itself brought in money to the economy as the Ambanis “spent locally”. They have also pointed to Ambani's many charitable acts in the last few months—the family held a "bhandara" to feed the poor every night for a week leading up to the main wedding. They held a mass wedding on 2 July for 50 underprivileged couples who could not afford their own weddings. 

According to WageIndicator's VIP database, Mukesh Ambani has made about INR 2 lakhs since you started reading this article. In sharp contrast, the average Starbucks barista working at the BKC and the average taxi driver in Mumbai make around the same amount annually. The average engineer working at Reliance is paid a salary of INR 6-7 lakhs annually, the exact cost of one of Anant Ambani's gilded wedding invitations. 

The Ambanis are ultimately a wealthy and influential family who can shut down roads and order employees to work online so their private celebrations can continue without interruptions. As headlines boasted about the Ambanis' shutting down of public roads, Indians were simultaneously appalled by a failure of urban planning and unsatisfactory deployment of public resources to counter the effects of this year's devastating monsoon. 

Conclusion

The Ambani-Merchant wedding was a reminder of the persisting inequalities in India. While the event highlighted the family's wealth and influence, commentators have noted that it also sparked debates on the ethics of such extravagant expenditures in a nation grappling with poverty and social inequality.

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