Extravagant wedding of Anant Ambani sparks debate

Rs 2 crore watch gift to guests 

Varaprasadarao K 

Mumbai: July 14: The recent wedding of Anant Ambani, youngest son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, has garnered significant attention and sparked a broader conversation about wealth and inequality in India. Reports indicate that the Ambani family spent approximately Rs. 5,000 crore on the nuptials, a figure that has raised eyebrows both domestically and internationally. 

As part of the celebrations, Anant Ambani gifted luxury gold watches worth Rs. 2 crore each to his friends, including prominent Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan and Ranveer Singh. The recipients’ photos with their new Audemars Piguet watches, featuring 41mm 18-carat pink gold cases and sapphire stone crystal backs, have gone viral on social media. The lavish affair has led some international observers to question the narrative of India’s poverty. Comments from abroad suggest disbelief that such opulence exists in a country often associated with economic hardship. National media estimates place the total expenditure on the wedding and pre-wedding events is around 5,000 crore, a figure representing less than 0.5 per cent of Mukesh Ambani’s total net worth.

 This display of affluence comes amid reports highlighting the stark economic divide in India, where the richest 1 per cent hold over 40 per cent of the country’s wealth. The pre-wedding celebrations were no less extravagant. In March, the Ambani family hosted a star-studded event in Jamnagar, Gujarat, featuring a performance by pop icon Rihanna, reportedly paid Rs. 74 crore. This was followed by a luxury European cruise in May, estimated to have cost around Rs. 1,253 crore. Canadian pop star Justin Bieber also performed at the sangeet, for which he was reportedly paid Rs. 83.53 crore. This isn’t the first time the Ambanis have made headlines with their extravagant celebrations. In 2018, Mukesh Ambani’s daughter Isha’s wedding was noted as the most expensive Indian wedding to date, with costs nearing $100 million. The Anant Ambani wedding festivities included an engagement party in January, followed by a three-day celebration in March with a guest list of 1,200, including tech moguls Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and political figures Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. For India’s business elite, grand weddings serve as a display of wealth, status, and social capital. The luxury wedding market in India has expanded rapidly, with annual expenditures exceeding $75 billion, attracting top celebrities, designers, and influencers. However, such displays of wealth have ignited discomfort among those concerned about India’s growing income inequality. “The magnificence of this wedding is evocative of existing, and widening, inequality in India and the cultural ease with which this privilege is sometimes flaunted,” remarked Anuradha Sajjanhar, author of The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi’s India.

 A study by the World Inequality Lab in March highlighted that the economic disparity in India has reached levels that, by some measures, surpass the inequality seen under British colonial rule. This widening gap raises important questions about the distribution of wealth and resources in modern India. As the nation grapples with these disparities, the Ambani wedding stands as a poignant reminder of the dual realities within India – one of immense wealth and privilege, and the other of widespread poverty and inequality.