Employees, security, and service staff wore different coloured wristbands. Ushers and a multi-layer security cover secured the sprawling venue, two sources aware of the matter said.
Detailed fire and other emergency plans were worked out, while elaborate medical response preparedness resembled one reserved for heads of state. The medical response preparedness included doctors and paramedical staff with all emergency equipment at the venue. Ambulances had clearly demarcated routes to the nearest hospitals, which had been primed in advance for dealing with any sort of medical emergency.
“The Ambanis did not want to leave anything to chance,” a source revealed.
Another source said the time between the QR code being sent and the actual event was cut this time, as in the previous Ambani wedding, some had “sold” access to non-invited people.
The dress code for all the events was Indian, and international guests too wore designer traditional clothes such as embroidered sherwanis and bandhgalas.
John Cena paired a powder-blue sherwani with white pants, while Nick Jonas wore a pink sherwani and white pants. Samsung head too came dressed in a sherwani for the event.
Most guests wore different clothes for the ‘baraat’ or wedding procession and the actual wedding on Friday.
The Saturday event featured all the guests invited for the wedding as well as some additional important people.
The guest list includes former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser, reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe, Nigerian rapper Rema, and footballer David Beckham.
Business tycoon Gautam Adani came to the wedding holding hands of his little granddaughter with his son Karan and wife Preeti in tow. Kumar Mangalam Birla, too, came with his family.
Almost the entire top-rung Bollywood actors—from Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan—were present, most with their families, while superstars Rajinikanth, Ram Charan and Mahesh Babu led the entourage from down south.
Indian cricketers, including icons Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, were also present. The notable people missing were T20 World Cup-winning captain Rohit Sharma, who was watching the Wimbledon semi-final in London and Virat Kohli.
Politicians who attended the wedding included Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, his wife Dimple and Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray.
NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot and Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar were also among the attendees at the event.
Shankaracharya of Dwarka Peeth Swami Sadananda Saraswati and Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath Swami Avimukteshwaranand as well as yoga guru Ramdev, attended the event.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his deputy Pawan Kalyan, too, were in attendance.
The groom, Anant, 29, oversees the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd’s renewable and green energy expansion, while the bride, Radhika Merchant, also 29, is the daughter of pharmaceutical tycoon Viren and Shaila Merchant and is the marketing director for his company, Encore Healthcare.
The three-day wedding extravaganza is the final stop in a string of lavish parties the family has hosted since March.
The couple got engaged in January 2023, and the Ambanis have hosted three lavish pre-wedding parties.
First, a three-day pre-wedding celebration was held in March in the group’s refinery township of Jamnagar in Gujarat, which hosted tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in the 1,200-strong guest list and had an exclusive performance by Rihanna.
David Blaine did magic tricks, and the festivities also involved a trip to Ambani’s ‘animal rescue centre’ housing exotic animals.
In May, the Ambanis set off on a four-day Mediterranean cruise starting in the Italian city of Palermo, featuring on-deck concerts from the Backstreet Boys, Pitbull, and David Guetta, and a performance by Katy Perry at a masquerade ball at the Château de la Croix des Gardes in France.
DJ David Guetta played at a toga party at sea.
The cruise ended in Italy’s Portofino, where tenor Andrea Bocelli serenaded the party in the town square.
Last week, Justin Bieber performed at the ‘Sangeet’ or musical night.
The Ambanis have not revealed how much Anant’s wedding is costing.
But the gala scale of the celebration included a Rs 5-6 lakh per piece select invitation box and three Falcon-2000 jets being rented to ferry wedding guests to the event.
Anant Ambani gifted friends Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar limited edition watch.
It was rumoured Rihanna had been paid USD 7 million for her performance and Bieber USD 10 million (close to Rs 84 crore).
An email sent to Reliance remained unanswered.
Mukesh and Nita in the past had lavish weddings for their other children too. Beyonce performed at daughter Isha Ambani’s 2018 nuptials, which boasted guests like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and a year later Coldplay’s Chris Martin performed at Aaksh’s pre-wedding bash in St Moritz, Switzerland, and Maroon 5 at his wedding in Mumbai.
The 2018 wedding of Isha was billed as the most expensive wedding in India to date, with some estimates putting the cost up to USD 100 million.
Mukesh Ambani, 67, is at present the world’s 11th richest man with a net worth of USD 119 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
He spent the last two decades in transforming Reliance Industries, founded by his father in 1966 as a stodgy oil and petrochemicals giant, into a global empire spanning telecoms, retail, financial services, cricket and luxury fashion.
Anant Ambani is the youngest of his three children, all of whom are on the board of Reliance Industries.