MUMBAI: Indian weddings are getting bigger and fatter by the day, thanks to the richie rich like the Ambanis, whose latest ‘I do’ between their youngest son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant is touted to be the costliest ever in this part of the world.
Slated for Friday evening at Antilia, the billion-dollar plus Ambani residence in central Mumbai, the guest list features nearly a dozen former prime ministers and presidents among which are former British premiers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson; ex-Canadian premier Stephen Harper and ex-Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt. Other guests include former US secretary of state John Kerry, Hollywood celebrities Kim and Khloe Kardashian; Aramco chief Amin Nasser, Samsung group chief executive Jay Lee, just to name a few.
The couple’s pre-wedding ceremonies in March held over a week at the sprawling private wildlife sanctuary Vantara in Jamnagar had guests like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, ex-Us president Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Qatari premier Mohammed bin Abdulrahman and the Bhutanese king and the queen along with the performance of Rihanna, and a Moulin Rouge-themed bash.
That of course the event also hogged negative headlines as it allegedly broke many a rule is another story: a temporary customs and immigration office at a private airstrip and alleged cruelty to wild animals among others.
Between May 29 and June 1, the Ambanis hired a Mediterranean luxury cruise line from Palmero to Portofino just for revelry that featured Katy Perry, the Backstreet Boys and Pitbull along with Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.
A recent foreign brokerage report has pegged the size of the wedding market in the country at $130 billion annually, which sadly is more than double of what we invest in education as a nation. Stated differently, this is second only to our national groceries bills, and is also the world’s second largest wedding market after China, according to Western brokerage Jefferies.
The country annually blesses around 10 million weddings making it arguably the largest wedding destination worldwide, bigger than China and the US in terms of numbers.
The report pegs that an average Indian spends Rs 12 lakh on a wedding, which in some cases far exceeds the money they spent on the 18 years of education. Compared globally, the country’s wedding spend-to-GDP ratio stands at 5x, significantly higher than several other economies, according to the Jefferies.
Another wedding in the Ambani family -- Mukesh and Nita’s only daughter Isha’s marriage to Anand Piramal in December 2018 -- is said to be the costliest before this, with a guesstimate of around Rs 700 crore. While the wedding was held at the Antilia, Udaipur’s Udayvilas Palace Hotel homed the pre-wedding festivities graced by notables like Hillary Clinton, Beyonce and a bevy of others. Of course there were also a number of Union ministers including Amit Shah and other politicians and businessmen.
Plenty of other Indian celebrity weddings have cost upwards of Rs 100 crore. Like the double wedding of Subrata Roy's children Sushanto Roy with Richa Ahuja and Seemanto Roy with Chantini Toor in February 2004 at Sahara Shaher in Lucknow.
Another wedding in the list is that of Karnataka politician Janardhan Reddy’s daughter to Brahmani to Rajiv Reddy in November 2016 at the Palace Grounds in Bangalore.
Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal also splurged on his daughter Shrishti’s marriage to Gulraj Behl in December 2013 in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
The Mittals had hogged the headlines earlier as well when their daughter Vanisha married Amit Bhatia in June 2004 at the Palace of Versailles in France, and then at Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. The couples were blessed by British politician Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet among others.
The wedding of Lalit Tanwar and Yogita Jaunapuria in March 2011 had the presence of Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sunil Bharti Mittal and also a big ticket do.
Sonam Vaswani’s (of Vaswani Group) marriage to Navin Fabiani in June 2017 at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna was another big ticket do.
Then there was Adel Sajan’s (heir to the Danube Group) marriage to Sana Khan in April 2017 at the Burj al Arab in Dubai.
Sanjay Hinduja’s 'I do' to Anu Mahtani in February 2015 at the Manek Chowk and Zenana Mahal in Udaipur had Tony Blair, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lopez and Mukesh Ambani lining up for the event.
Vikram Chatwal and Priya Sachdev’s February 2006 wedding in the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur had Bill Clinton, Naomi Campbell among other bug names in the guest list.
