Prime minister Modi’s blessing and a Kardashian cameo — here’s what happened at India’s wedding of the year
By Rhea Mogul, CNN
(CNN) — India’s most anticipated wedding of the year came to an end on Sunday after a star-studded three-day celebration that even saw the country’s prime minister arrive to bless the young couple.
Billionaire heir Anant Ambani married his longtime girlfriend Radhika Merchant in Mumbai in a lavish ceremony attended by Kim and Khloé Kardashian, two former British prime ministers, Indian sporting legends and some of Bollywood’s most famous faces. The wedding was followed by a blessing ceremony on Saturday, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi bestowed the young couple and their families with well wishes.
The weekend’s festivities concluded Sunday with an extravagant reception, or “Mangal Utsav” (festival of bliss), as attendees jetted out of Mumbai.
No expense was spared by the family that owns India’s largest private corporation, Reliance Industries. Founded by Anant’s grandfather, the conglomerate is now run by his father Mukesh, who is worth over $122 billion, according to Forbes.
The Ambani-owned 16,000-capacity Jio World Convention Centre, which hosted wedding events throughout the weekend, was transformed into a miniature version of the holy Indian city of Varanasi, featuring floral installations and extravagant sets embellished with gold and silver.
The couple underwent multiple outfit changes across the three-day bash, appearing in a succession of intricate, custom-made pieces celebrating the country’s heritage and culture.
Merchant’s bridal ensemble was designed by Indian label Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla and featured ivory zardozi (an elaborate type of metal embroidery) on silk and a 5-meter (16.4-foot) veil. She completed the look with jewels that aunts and sister wore to their own weddings. She later changed into an opulent red and gold outfit for her “vidai,” the ceremony in which Indian brides symbolically bid farewell to their relatives before joining their groom’s family.
Ambani meanwhile arrived on the red carpet in a golden sherwani paired with sneakers. For the marriage ceremony, he wore a custom red sherwani by Sabyasachi Mukherjee, with a large green necklace draped around his neck.
For Saturday’s blessings ceremony, Merchant once again donned a custom piece by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, who collaborated with contemporary artist and sculptor Jayasri Burman to create a one-of-a-kind piece embroidered with real gold.
The garment celebrates the couple’s union “through deeply meaningful imagery,” Merchant’s stylist Rhea Kapoor wrote on Instagram. “The human figures representing the happy couple radiate a celestial aura that honors the divinity in their humanity. The fauna depicts Anant’s fondness for animals, particularly elephants that are considered auspicious and beautiful.”
For the reception Sunday, guests interpreted the “Indian chic” dress code by mixing classic Indian fashion with contemporary styles. Merchant wore a gold metallic corset from Dolce and Gabbana’s Alta Moda couture line, along with a skirt and dupatta in the same shade by Indian designer Anamika Khanna.
Months of planning
It is not known precisely how much the Ambanis spent on the celebrations, which included months of pre-wedding parties, though industry estimates have placed the total firmly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Insiders worked for months to bring the couple’s vision to life, collaborating with the family to bring the intricate details — from the floral arrangements to the set designs — together.
Renowned wedding designer Preston Bailey, who has worked with Serena Williams and LeBron James, was commissioned to create larger-than-life floral art installations for the weekend.
Speaking to CNN via email ahead of Friday’s ceremony, Bailey commended Ambani’s mother Nita’s attention to detail. It was “nothing short of pure genius and she is really focused on bringing the vast creative talent of India to the world through these weddings,” he said.
The inspiration for Bailey’s designs came from the couple’s love for animals and Ambani’s recently opened animal sanctuary, Vantara, in the western Indian city of Jamnagar. His sculptural creations included a giant display of hot air balloons and more than 60 floral animals, including giraffes, two huge toucans, monkeys perched on trees inside the venue and a giant horse made from red and pink flowers.
“I have been in business for over 40 years … (but) I have never seen anything as intricate as this wedding and I believe it will bring such positive feedback and awareness to the great creative culture of artists of India,” said Bailey, who also worked on the weddings of Ambani’s two older siblings, Akash and Isha.
Top Indian couturier and the wedding’s creative director, Manish Malhotra, earlier told CNN that “maintaining the essence of India” had been his “guiding principle.”
“Each detail, from the decor and cuisine to the attire and ambiance; each event, from the vibrant Sangeet (a traditional evening of music and dance that saw a performance from Justin Bieber) to the ceremonial wedding day and the grand reception, is designed to immerse guests in an atmosphere of joy, love and celebration,” he said via email.
Criticism and sustainability
Details of the celebrations dominated local news headlines and set social media abuzz, but many within India — the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people — criticized the opulence on show in a country with a glaring wealth gap and where millions live in poverty.
“Shame on people celebrating income inequality in a country where we need wealth redistribution,” tweeted comedian and social media critic, Shamita Yadav, who posts on social media as The Ranting Gola.
“We are really a poor country,” Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, Sushant Singh, told Indian news outlet The Wire. “This is something which is completely unacceptable. But the fact of the matter is half of India’s big media is owned by Mr. Ambani, so it is unlikely that India’s big media is going to say that this is horrible.”
Beyond the financial cost of the wedding and festivities is another, less visible cost: the one to the planet.
An average Indian wedding of 300 people typically generates between 1.5 tons and 2 tons of waste, and around 30 to 40 tons of carbon emission — before taking guest travel into consideration — according to Ashwin Malwade, co-founder of Greenmyna, a Mumbai-based sustainable wedding consultancy. Sources of emissions include large-scale banquets and energy used by extravagant light displays.
An event as huge in scale as the Ambani-Merchant celebration would emit far more carbon than even the largest and most lavish Indian wedding, he added. Then there’s the travel, with several high-profile attendees pictured leaving Mumbai via Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport’s private jet terminal.
Malwade also pointed to the environmental footprint of the Ambanis’ pre-wedding bash in Jamnagar, attended by public figures from around the world, including Mark Zuckerberg, Ivanka Trump, Bill Gates and Karlie Kloss; the four-day cruise arranged for guests in the Mediterranean; and the emissions required to fly in singers like Rihanna and Justin Bieber to perform at various events.
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CNN’s Aditi Sangal contributed to this story.
