The youngest son of Asia’s richest man has married his long-time girlfriend. Many called the wedding the wedding of the year. World celebrities, business tycoons and politicians were in attendance, underlining the staggering wealth and growing influence of billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
The wedding rituals, which included the couple exchanging flower garlands and walking around the sacred fire, began on Friday and lasted until after midnight.
The wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant took place at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, which is owned by Ambani, and at the family home.
The wedding was the culmination of months of wedding events that included performances by pop stars such as Rihanna and Justin Bieber.
The four-day wedding celebrations began with the traditional Hindu wedding ceremony, followed by a grand reception that lasted the entire weekend.
According to local media, the guest list includes former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser, as well as Adele, Lana Del Rey, Drake and David Beckham.
Television news channels featured celebrities such as Kim Kardashian in a red ensemble and professional wrestler and Hollywood actor John Cena.
International guests also wore traditional dresses by major Indian fashion designers.
They don embroidered sherwanis – long-sleeved overcoats worn by men in South Asia.
Cena wore a sky blue sherwani and white pants while Nick Jonas wore a pink sherwani and white pants.
To cope with the influx of guests flying into Mumbai, police had set up traffic diversions around the wedding venue from Friday to Monday, where heavy monsoon rains had caused flooding and flight cancellations last week.
The extravagance and display of opulence that accompany the wedding have raised questions among many about the growing gap between rich and poor in India.
The groom’s father, Mukesh Ambani, is the ninth richest man in the world with a net worth of $116 billion ($171 billion Australian dollars), according to Forbes.
He is the richest person in Asia. His conglomerate Reliance Industries has annual sales of over US$100 billion and is active in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecommunications and retail.
The groom, 29-year-old Anant, oversees the conglomerate’s expansion into renewable and green energy.
He also runs a 1,200-hectare animal rescue center in Jamnagar, in the state of Gujarat, the family’s hometown.
The bride, Radhika Merchant, also 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical magnate Viren Merchant and, according to Vogue, marketing director of his company Encore Healthcare.
Ambani’s critics say his company relied on his political connections during the Congress-led governments in the 1970s and 1980s and under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule after 2014.
The Ambani family’s pre-wedding celebrations were lavish and star-studded from the start.
In March, they hosted a three-day party in Anant’s honor with 1,200 guests, including former heads of state, tech tycoons and Bollywood megastars, and performances by Rihanna, Akon and Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh.
In May, the family took guests on a three-day cruise from Italy to France, during which, according to media reports, Katy Perry sang her hit “Firework” and Pitbull performed.
As part of the celebrations, the family also organised a mass wedding for more than 50 underprivileged couples on July 2.
Last week, Justin Bieber performed at a pre-wedding concert that also featured Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh and Salman Khan.