Akash Ambani and his wife Shloka Mehta with brother Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant at their pre-wedding bash, in Jamnagar, on March 2, 2024. Pic: PTI
Radhika-Anant Ambani | A glimpse into India's costliest weddings
As Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's pre-wedding extravaganza is catching eyeballs in India, The Federal checks out some of India's most expensive weddings till date
As the curtains go up on the grand pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant at Jamnagar in Gujarat, the three-day event which involves an “educational” safari to a rescue and rehabilitation centre 'Vantara' set by the younger Ambani scion, will also have performances by pop star Rihanna, Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh, Bollywood music duo Ajay-Atul and American illusionist David Blaine.
Bollywood actors Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Ram Charan dance the Naatu Naatu song at Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's pre-wedding bash, in Jamnagar, on March 2, 2024. Pic: PTI
The guest list includes everyone from Indian billionaires to Bollywood celebrities, with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Ivanka Trump all set to attend the event.
This is just a mere taste of what is to come for the main wedding on July 12 in Mumbai.
The Federal reviews some of India’s costliest weddings to date:
The Mittal wedding
This was the wedding that started it all. That really set the template for the 'Big Fat' Indian wedding among the wealthy and famous in India. The daughter of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, Vanisha Mittal’s marriage to British businessman Amit Bhatia, was a bold statement of wealth, power and extravagance in the most beautiful of locales – Paris.
The ceremonies were held in different iconic landmarks of Paris. For starters, the sangeet kicked off at the exotic Jardin des Tuileries, where specially invited Indian chefs drummed up sumptuous dishes. The engagement ceremony that was held the next day at the stunning Palace of Versailles featured a French opera and Moulin Rouge style cancan dancing.
The main wedding ceremony itself was held at the 17th century Vaux le Vicomte palace. More than 35 craftsmen were flown in from Mumbai to set up a mandap, or the stage where the wedding ritual is performed, on a pond in the estate gardens. The gardens were adorned with life-size elephants made of fibre glass, minarets and a massive reception hall done up in pink.
After a royal feast, guests got a guided tour of the palace and then had some fun dancing late into the night at the Le Grand Inter Continental Hotel.
Designers Tarun Tahiliani, Suneet Varma and the Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla duo created the wedding outfits. A performance by pop diva Kylie Minogue (rumoured to have got 200,000 pounds for her half an hour act); a Javed Akhtar scripted play was enacted by the Mittal family and Bollywood celebrities like Aishwarya Rai, Juhi Chawla, Saif Ali Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and others entertained the guests. At that time, the Bollywood stars got flak for 'dancing at weddings' back in India but now that criticism has long disappeared.
Bollywood actors were seen herded in buses and taken around in Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding festivities. No one bats an eyelid now!
This Mittal wedding held in 2004, and which ostensibl cost ₹240 crores, ended with fireworks display at the Eiffel tower.
The Reddy wedding
The wedding of mining baron and former politician Gali Janardhana Reddy’s daughter Brahmani Reddy made headlines in 2016. It was an opulent, five-day affair held at the Bangalore Palace and was attended by 50,000 guests, including a number of Bollywood stars and politicians.
Reddy’s daughter got married to Rajeev Reddy, the son of Hyderabad business tycoon Vikram Dev Reddy.
The venue was decorated with replicas of ancient Indian temples designed by Bollywood art directors, bull-drawn carts to transport guests and huge helium balloons bearing larger-than-life images of the family. There were 3,000 security guards who were recruited for the venue.
The bride’s wedding saree reportedly cost ₹17 crores. The wedding invitations were gold-plated and featured an LCD screen, which featured a video of the couple and the politician lip-syncing to an Indian song. This cost ₹5 crores, while the entire wedding cost Janardhana Reddy ₹500 crores.
The Ambanis
It was back in 2018 that Mukesh Ambani, threw his daughter, Isha, the most expensive wedding the country had ever seen. Beyoncé performed at this wedding and guests attended functions in Italy’s Lake Como, Mumbai and Rajasthan.
This multi-city wedding celebration of Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal apparently cost Asia's richest man ₹700 crores.
The wedding invitation to guests was distributed in a Dolce & Gabbana box. Reportedly, Beyonce was paid US $15 million for a 45-minute appearance, while the bride’s wedding sari alone cost over ₹2 million rupees.
The festivities kicked off in Udaipur with massive pre-wedding events at the Oberoi Udaivilas Hotel and City Palace. Chartered planes were used to fly in the guest, who enjoyed private concerts, costume parties, and dance performances. For the main wedding ceremony in Udaipur, the Ambanis built a massive mandap on a private island in the middle of Lake Pichola.
A separate reception in Mumbai included a private show by pop icon Beyoncé and was attended by celebrities like Hillary Clinton. Held in December 2018, it was the most talked about wedding with film stars serving guests.
The Roys
Before he got embroiled in financial controversies, Sahara’s Subrata Roy held a memorable double wedding for his two sons, Sushanto Roy and Seemanto Roy’, which cost a whopping ₹554 crores.
The week-long double wedding extravaganza for 11,000 guests was held at the Sahara Stadium in Lucknow. Bollywood A-listers and cricket stars were invited and the stadium was decorated by the replica of an ancient Indian palace. Roy also hosted simultaneous wedding ceremonies for 110 less fortunate brides at the same venue.
Guests arrived in ornate horse-drawn carriages, greeted by giant helium balloons featuring the imges of the newlyweds.
There were luxury bull-drawn carts for transporting guests, 3,000 security guards and performances by Bollywood stars.
Hindujas wedding
Sanjay Hinduja’s wedding to his long-time girlfriend and well-known fashion designer, Anusuya Mahtani is yet another Big Fat Indian wedding. More than 16,000 guests attended the wedding and they chauffeured around in BMWs. Sanjay Hinduja, who is chairman of Gulf Oil International Limited, part of the privately controlled multi-billion Hinduja Group of Companies, ostensibly spent ₹140 crores.
Bollywood stars like Malaika Arora, Arjun Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Jennifer Lopez performed at the wedding.
Sajan wedding
Danube Homes CEO, Adel Sajan, married his partner, Sana Khan, aboard the Concordia-class cruise ship Costa Fascinosa. The ship sailed between Barcelona, Spain, Marseilles and Cannes, France, ending up in Savona, Italy.
More than ₹100 crore rupees was spent on the wedding festivities, which included personalized gift baskets from Harrods for guests, a musical performance by Badshah and Vishal, and Shekhar for the sangeet ceremony. Prominent guests were celebrities like Gauhar Khan and Sushmita Sen.
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