India’s Reliance and Bollywood fuel Ambani wedding hype through social media
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Groom Anant Ambani (left) with his parents Nita Ambani (right) and Mukesh Ambani on the day of his wedding on Jul 12.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MUMBAI - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son got married on July 12 in a lavish ceremony that has been a hot talking point at home and abroad, with his father’s US$260 billion (S$349 billion) conglomerate Reliance taking to social media to heavily publicise the event.
Reliance’s efforts, coupled with posts from a host of Bollywood stars and coverage in the media, have helped whip up public interest in the wedding, overshadowing some critical social media posts that have questioned the opulence at a time of growing inequality in India.
Mr Ambani’s youngest son Anant, 29, married his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant, 29, in a star-studded ceremony in Mumbai that was attended by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Mike Tyson and politicians such as Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. Three days of celebratory receptions follow.
An unnamed executive at Reliance called the event a “powerful symbol of India’s growing stature on the global stage”.
“The presence of esteemed individuals highlights India’s economic, political, intellectual, and scientific prowess,” according to a note shared with reporters.
Mr Ambani, Asia’s richest person, is famous for hosting lavish parties, especially for his three children Akash, Isha and Anant. International artists perform and a host of Bollywood stars usually attend the gatherings, whose price tags run into the millions.
This promises to be the most extravagant of Mr Ambani’s galas so far, although it is not known how much was spent.
Reliance shares videos, photos
Some, such as opposition politician Thomas Isaac, have called the amount of spending “obscene”.
“Legally, it may be their money but such ostentatious expenditure is a sin against mother earth and (the) poor,” he said in a post on X.
The wedding functions have been deemed a public event, leading to traffic restrictions in a key Mumbai business district for four days, also raising public ire.
With access limited and details closely guarded, information meted out to the eager public has been done partly through Reliance’s official Facebook page, which has 2.3 million followers.
The account shared video clips of dance performances and photographs to give a peek into the private celebrations.
One post on Reliance’s Facebook account this week, which received 54,000 likes, showed the Ambani family at a private music function, dancing to a Bollywood song. It was promoted with hashtags such as #ARWeddingCelebrations.
Media access to the wedding venue was restricted on the night of July 12, with only a limited number of photographers and TV crew allowed to capture incoming guests.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie Blair on the red carpet on the day of the wedding in Mumbai on July 12.
Onlookers stood with umbrellas in the rain outside the venue, some taking pictures, with the sound of Bollywood audible from inside.
A foreign company executive in India, who was due to attend the Ambani wedding function this weekend, said function organisers will likely put tape on the phone cameras of entering guests to ensure no pictures are taken.
Most of Mr Ambani’s celebrations are closely guarded.
The wedding events started in March with a three-day pre-wedding party with 1,200 guests and a performance by superstar Rihanna, followed by a European luxury cruise with 800 guests in May.
Days later, several Bollywood actresses posted photos on Instagram, sporting luxury designer labels, to their millions of followers, without any details of the Ambani cruise celebrations.
Such is the interest that Indian TV news channels are tracking the wedding minute by minute.
“The world descends... Guest list to what’s there to eat. Every minute detail on Times Now,” the TV news channel’s tickers said on July 12. REUTERS
