“We are pleased to invite you to the pre-wedding celebrations of Radhika and Anant at Reliance Greens, Jamnagar from March 1-3, 2024,” reads the official invitation, which will be sent to some of the world’s richest and most influential people and have accepted world. World. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock; Stephen Schwarzman, president of Blackstone; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, and Ivanka Trump, daughter of former US President Donald Trump, are just some of the billionaires attending the pre-wedding celebrations this weekend for the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, owner of the Indian conglomerate Reliance. one of the 10 richest men in the world took part. Anant Ambani, 28, will marry his childhood fiancée Radhika Merchant, 29, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant, wealthy owner of a medical services empire, this summer and they will be sparing no expense to celebrate. They have already proven this at previous celebrations.
Indian weddings are known for their great ceremonial opulence and pomp as they usually last three days, but in the case of the Ambani family it is a thousand times that. This weekend was just the start of the official ceremony, which is expected to take place on July 12 and promises to be one of the biggest weddings ever in the Asian country. Some local media are already calling it “the social event of the year.”
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Expectations are very high and that's no wonder given the magnificence of what was just the foreplay. The party started last Friday, March 1st. The guests were taken by private flights from the cities of Bombay and New Delhi to Jamnagar in the Indian state of Gujarat, where the Ambani family has its own city: Reliance Greens, a complex for thousands of residents, including their own businesses, with cricket fields, tennis courts, a hospital and its own wildlife reserve – including big cats and more than 200 elephants.
Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani, in Mumbai, India, on March 31, 2023. Hindustan Times (Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
The invitation guide indicated that the theme of the first evening was “an evening in Everland,” to which guests were required to arrive in “elegant cocktail attire.” On the second evening, however, the theme was “a nature walk,” set in the middle of Ambani’s animal rescue center, with a hint of “jungle fever” outfit. The final day was reserved for Tusker Trails and Hashtakshar, where the stylistic requirement for guests was to wear traditional Indian clothing. With so many themed parties, it is not surprising that attendees were given a nine-page document with etiquette instructions as well as explanations and reference photos for the outfits, some of them revealed to The Indian Times.
Bill Gates with his partner Paula Hurd; Ivanka Trump with her husband Jared Kushner and their daughter Anabella; and Mark Zuckerberg with his wife Priscilla Chan.
One of the most anticipated and exclusive moments of the celebration was Rihanna's private concert. The Barbadian singer arrived in India on Thursday to attend the event and perform a show on Saturday that marked her first full-length performance in eight years – beyond the nearly 15 minutes she performed during the half-time show last year Super Bowl had offered. With a hefty check, the Ambanis managed to perform a concert with 19 songs, including Bitch Better Have My Money, Man Down, We Found Love, Work and Diamonds. Social media was filled with clips from performances like “Wild Thoughts,” “Birthday Cake,” or “Pour It Up,” and even captured the artist and businesswoman leaving the stage to perform with Bollywood guest stars like Janhvi Kapoor to perform dance steps. It is estimated that the singer received six million dollars (around 5.5 million euros) for this performance, but some media say a higher sum, up to nine million dollars. But it's not the first time the Ambanis have spent big on hiring big stars: in 2018, Beyoncé attended the wedding of Anant's older sister Isha Ambani and a year later Coldplay performed at her brother Akash Ambani's house.
Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani on stage with Rihanna and other guests during their pre-wedding celebrations. Reliance Industries (via Portal)
The celebration also included a light show in the sky, using hundreds of drones to project a colorful image depicting the bride and groom and several exotic animals: two birds, an elephant, a tiger, a lion and a peacock. . “I had two important wishes for the wedding of my youngest son Anant and Radhika: Firstly, I wanted to celebrate our roots. Secondly, I wanted the celebration to be a tribute to our art and culture,” said the groom's mother, Nita Ambani, in a video for the press.
According to Indian media, the Ambanis hired 21 chefs to oversee the various menus for the three-day celebration, which served a total of 2,500 unique dishes. The breakfast menu alone had more than 70 options, lunch and dinner had more than 250 options, so no dish was repeated from one evening to the next. The guide sent to guests also noted that there would be laundry services, ironing services, makeup, hair styling and even people who would help create the folds of the sari, the traditional Indian costume for women, from several yards of fabric that need to be draped over the body.
Drone show at Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's pre-wedding celebrations. Reliance Industries (via Portal)
According to the Times of India newspaper, invitations were also sent to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohamed bin Abderrahman Al Thani; to the Queen of Bhutan, Jetsun Pema; Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen; the President of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab; to the former President of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga; and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It was a private party, like the wedding, but a show of this magnitude is difficult to hide. The media was able to photograph details of the party and the participants themselves shared their pictures on social networks. And that was just the start.