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 12 months, 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 fireplace, started Friday and have been accomplished previous midnight.
The celebrations of Anant Ambani marrying Radhika Service provider occurred on the Ambani-owned Jio World Conference Centre in Mumbai and the household dwelling. The wedding culminated months of marriage 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 friends and family members to meet the couple and wish them a happy married life.
India Today television news channel reported that the newlyweds touched Modi’s feet as a show of respect and sought his blessings.
ajanish Kakade via Associated Press
The four-day wedding celebrations began Friday with the traditional Hindu wedding ceremony and will be followed by a grand reception to run through the weekend. The guest list includes former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson; John Kerry, the former U.S. special envoy for climate, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser; and Adele, Lana Del Rey, Drake and David Beckham, according to local media. The Ambani family did not confirm the guest list.
Television news channels showed the arrivals of celebrities like Kim Kardashian, who was dressed in red, and professional wrestler and Hollywood actor John Cena.
Kardashian sisters Kim and Khloé took a ride in a motorized rickshaw through bustling Mumbai streets Friday before joining the wedding ceremonies, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
International guests wore traditional clothes by major Indian fashion designers. They put on embroidered sherwanis — long-sleeved outer coats worn by men in South Asia. Cena came 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 wedding and danced to popular Hindi movie songs. Indian cricketers, including icons Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, were among the invitees.
PUNIT PARANJPEPUNIT PARANJPE via Getty Images
Police imposed traffic diversions around the wedding venue from Friday to Monday to handle the influx of guests who flew to Mumbai, where heavy monsoon rains have caused flooding and flight disruptions for the past week.
The extravaganza and the display of opulence that comes with the wedding have led many to raise questions about rising inequality in India, where the gap between rich and poor is growing. The event has also sparked anger among some Mumbai residents, who say they are struggling with snarled traffic.
“It affects our earnings. I don’t care much about the wedding,” mentioned 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 value of $116 billion, in keeping with 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 value $1 billion. The constructing comprises three helipads, a 160-car storage and a personal movie show.
The groom, 29-year-old Anant, oversees the conglomerate’s renewable and inexperienced power growth. He additionally runs a 3,000-acre (about 1,200-hectare) animal rescue middle 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 keeping with Vogue.
Ambani’s critics say his firm has relied on political connections throughout Congress Occasion-led governments within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, and underneath 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 music “Firework” and a efficiency by Pitbull, in keeping with media stories.
The household additionally organized a mass marriage ceremony for greater than 50 underprivileged {couples} on July 2 as a part of the celebrations.
Final week, Justin Bieber carried out for tons of 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.
