The son of India’s richest man is getting married this summer. But the wedding festivities actually began last week in New Delhi at a decadent venue in Gujarat, a western Indian state, and the exorbitant prices of all the festivities sent shockwaves around the world. For the happy couple, the fun is just the beginning.
But who are the Ambani family and how did they manage to bring together some of the most powerful and influential people in the world, from hedge fund bosses to music celebrities, at a pre-wedding party?
It all starts with the groom’s father, billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani, who is currently the richest person in India and the ninth richest man in the world. Forbes pegs his net worth at just under $118 billion.
Ambani, 66, is chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries, a Mumbai-based conglomerate with businesses in everything from retail, natural gas and petrochemicals to telecommunications, textiles and entertainment. It is the largest private sector company in India and number 88 in the Fortune Global 500.
Ambani’s father Dhirubhai, the groom-to-be’s grandfather, was a yarn trader who founded Reliance in 1958 as a commodities trading company. Such products were mainly spices and polyester yarn. In 1966, Dhirubhai limited his focus primarily to polyester, incorporating Reliance Industries Private Limited as a family-owned textile manufacturer in the western state of Maharashtra, India.
Dhirubhai died in 2002, leaving Mukesh and his brother Anil at the reins; Mukesh eventually gained majority control. As of last year, Reliance operates over 230 branches.
The real celebrations this week were for Anant Ambani, 29, Mukesh’s youngest son, who will marry his longtime girlfriend Radhika Merchant. Merchant herself comes from a wealthy family: Her father, Viren Merchant, is CEO of Encore Healthcare Private Limited, a pharmaceutical giant in India.
Reliance remains a family business and each of Mukesh’s three sons has control of a different sector Forbes. They officially joined the board last year and eldest son Akash leads the telecom and broadband division. Isha, Akash’s twin sister, heads financial services and retail, while Anant, the groom-to-be, heads energy.
The elder Ambani’s contacts led to a guest list for the three-day event that numbered more than 1,200 people, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the Disney CEO Bob Iger (who was invited but not present), former first daughter Ivanka Trump and her real estate mogul husband Jared Kushner, Bollywood celebrity Shah Rukh Khan and even pop star Rihanna, who walked out of pension to perform for the party, earning a supposed payout of $6 million.
As critics have pointed out, the party’s flamboyance only underlines the rampant inequality plaguing India, where the richest 1% owns more than 40% of the country’s total wealth.
According to New York Times, the party was as much a destination for socializing and networking as it was for partying. “For example, Nita Ambani, Mukesh Ambani’s wife, is reportedly set to become chairwoman of the board of directors of the company created by a recent merger of Reliance with Walt Disney’s Indian media operations,” Suhasini Raj reported.
Too bad Iger didn’t show up, but luckily the wedding is still a few months away.