Anant Ambani with his fiancee Radhika Merchant pose for a picture during their Sangeet Ceremony in Mumbai, on July 5, 2024. - AFP
NEW DELHI: Celebrities from Kim and Khloe Kardashian to boxer Mike Tyson are expected to join some of the biggest names in global business at a lavish family wedding thrown by Asia’s richest person, set to take place Friday (July 12) in India after months of celebrations.
The wedding of Anant Ambani - youngest son of Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani - will be attended by luminaries from HSBC Holdings plc chairman Mark Tucker and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd chairman Jay Lee to political heavyweights like former UK leaders Boris Johnson and Tony Blair, according to people familiar with the guest list who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Chief executives including Saudi Aramco’s Amin Nasser and BP Plc counterpart Murray Auchincloss are on the list, the people said. So are Emma Walmsley of drug giant GSK Plc, Jim Taiclet of Lockheed Martin and even FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
While the CEOs of firms including Ericsson and HP Inc are attending, some of the flashier names in tech - including Meta Platforms Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg, who was present for pre-wedding festivities - don’t appear on the guest list, according to the people.
A representative for Reliance did not offer any immediate comment on the guest list.
Anant Ambani and fiancée Radhika Merchant will become man and wife at the Jio World Centre in central Mumbai, with the event set to be attended by about 1,200 guests who also include include Indian lawmakers and government ministers. Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani has curated hundreds of local dishes, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.
Guest invitations, in the form of miniature temples with gold idols of Hindu gods, have gone viral on social media.
The gathering of the rich and famous comes as the Ambani family is engaged in a succession exercise and massive wealth transfer to its heirs.
The 29-year-old groom will be in charge of Reliance’s fledgling green energy business, as the conglomerate diversifies beyond its fossil fuel roots. Only daughter Isha Ambani oversees the retail businesses, while Akash Ambani, the eldest son, is helming the group’s digital ventures.
Still, the lavish festivities are also reportedly annoying some local residents and office workers: City authorities have imposed traffic restrictions from July 12 to 15 around the wedding venue, which happens to be in the heart of Mumbai’s financial district.
The curbs on movement around the Bandra Kurla Complex - home to India’s markets regulator, its biggest stock exchange and a slew of foreign banks - has irked locals, with a flurry of posts on X questioning why the government is inconveniencing the public for a private event.
Bankers in the teeming district said they planned to either work from home or other locations on Friday, setting up meetings offsite and telling visitors not to come by their offices this week. They’ve also had to look for new locations for entertaining, given that most restaurants in the area will be closed from Friday.
The wedding is taking place after 134 days of pre-celebrations that have featured visits to the family’s personal zoo, a luxury cruise in Europe, a mass wedding for underprivileged couples and a musical event with Justin Bieber.
The stretch officially kicked off in early March, attended by high profile guests including Zuckerberg, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, BlackRock In. co-founder Larry Fink, Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai and Saudi Aramco’s Chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan. - Bloomberg
