It’s exhausting to imagine it’s already been a 12 months since Anant Ambani and Radhika Service provider tied the knot in what many dubbed “India’s personal royal marriage ceremony.”
On 12 July 2024, Mumbai witnessed a spectacle of unmatched scale, hosted throughout the towering Antilia residence and the sprawling Jio Conference Centre. The groom, Anant, youngest son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and philanthropist Nita Ambani, married Radhika, daughter of Viren Service provider, a revered determine in India’s healthcare business.
From the outset, it was made clear that this wasn’t going to be simply one other celeb marriage ceremony. The New York Instances even described it as “Indias’ personal Gilded Age.”
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Estimates counsel the Ambanis spent between 0 million to billion, an eye-watering determine by any customary, however simply 0.5% of their complete web value.(Categorical File/Varinder Chawla)
The marriage celebrations started months earlier than the large day. In early March 2024, visitors flew to Jamnagar, Gujarat, for the primary pre-wedding celebration; an extravagant three-day affair hosted at Vantara, the household’s animal rescue sanctuary. Visitors have been requested to decorate in “jungle fever” apparel, becoming for the luxurious, forested environment. On stage, the who’s who of Bollywood entertained: Shah Rukh Khan, Diljit Dosanjh, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Rihanna, no much less, who carried out her first full-length live performance in eight years.
Then in Might, the celebrations fairly actually took off, on a Mediterranean cruise with 1,200 family and friends. Shock performances from the Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, and Pitbull lit up the evenings. It felt extra like a music pageant than a pre-wedding social gathering.
In each occasion main as much as the marriage, Radhika Service provider’s outfits shined simply as brilliant. For her haldi ceremony, she wore a dupatta manufactured from actual marigolds and jasmine buds. Simply think about: 90 marigold blooms and hundreds of jasmine petals, woven collectively by hand.
On the sangeet, she wore a golden Manish Malhotra lehenga, embellished with over 25,000 Swarovski crystals. For one of many cruise occasions, she donned a futuristic gold robe by Grace Ling, made utilizing aerospace aluminium expertise. And in what many followers referred to as a poetic gesture, Radhika wore a customized robe by Robert Wun, printed with a love letter from Anant written to her on her twenty second birthday. Styled by Rhea Kapoor, that look grew to become some of the talked-about style moments of the 12 months.
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Kim and Khloe on the Ambani marriage ceremony (Photograph: Kim/Instagram)
On the marriage day itself, Radhika’s lehenga, designed by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, showcased Gujarati custom in all its glory. The intricate zardozi, the five-metre head veil, the “AR” monogram brooch (for Anant-Radhika), each element was symbolic. Her post-wedding lehenga was a real murals: hand-painted throughout 12 Italian canvas panels by celebrated artist Jayasri Burman, that includes mythological motifs, animals (particularly elephants), and celestial figures representing the couple.
Luxurious, however in context
So, how a lot did all of it price? Estimates counsel the Ambanis spent between $600 million to $1 billion, an eye-watering determine by any customary, however simply 0.5% of their complete web value. For perspective, many Indian households sometimes spend 5–15% of their web value on a marriage.
Twelve months on, the Ambani-Service provider marriage ceremony continues to linger in public creativeness.
