After seven months of extravagant pre-wedding celebrations, Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest man, wed pharmaceutical heiress Radhika Merchant on Friday, before thousands of guests.
Notable attendees included Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, and former British prime ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.
The star-studded event also attracted major figures from Indian entertainment, sport, business, and politics, including Bollywood stars Rajinikanth and Sanjay Dutt, former president Ram Nath Kovind, various state chief ministers, and members of India’s revered cricket team.
The Ambani family, behind India’s largest private corporation Reliance Industries, spared no expense. The conglomerate, founded by Anant’s grandfather, is now run by his father Mukesh, who Forbes values at over $122 billion.
In rain-soaked Mumbai, police closed roads around the 16,000-capacity Jio World Convention Center, owned by the Ambanis, ahead of a red-carpet event. Guests, dressed in custom sarees, lehengas, and kurtas, streamed past photographers in an event poised to set trends in Indian wedding fashion.
International guests adhered to the traditional dress code, donning designs by major Indian fashion designers. John Cena walked the red carpet in an embroidered sky blue sherwani and white pants, while Jonas sparkled in a baby pink ensemble — a bouclé-style woven fabric with sequins — and matching satin trousers. Priyanka Chopra, Jonas’s wife, wore an intricately embellished sunshine yellow sari.
The fashion crowd was also in full force. Law Roach, Zendaya’s longtime stylist, wore a mauve velvet jacket and purple tunic with Schiaparelli gold-toed shoes, while designer Prabal Gurung donned a rose-colored sherwani and aviator sunglasses.
Kim and Khloé Kardashian, seen on social media in gold and red saris respectively, skipped the red carpet. Kim’s outfit featured an off-the-shoulder tasseled bodice, while Khloé wore long ornate sleeves, stacked necklaces, and a maang tikka. In an Instagram story, Kim hinted that their film crew was present for an episode of “The Kardashians.”
Inside the venue, transformed into a miniature version of the holy Indian city of Varanasi, celebrities including Chopra and Cena danced and enjoyed themselves.
Widely shared footage showed Ambani family members dancing on stage with Indian singer Daler Mehndi. Other performers included Afrobeats star Rema, who sang his hit “Calm Down.”
The groom arrived on the red carpet in a golden sherwani paired with sneakers, later changing for the ceremony.
The bride dazzled in hand-embroidered bridal couture by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, wearing an opulent red-trimmed ivory ensemble with a 16-foot-long veil adorned with stones and sequins and a long ghagra with a nearly seven-foot-long detachable train, according to her stylist Rhea Kapoor.
For her “vidai,” the ceremony where Indian brides symbolically bid farewell to their families, Merchant changed into an opulent red and gold outfit with a woven blouse, lehenga, veil, and embroidered head covering.
In a video posted on Friday, Anant’s mother Nita Ambani recounted a recent trip to Varanasi, where she sought blessings for the couple.
She expressed her desire to “reimagine and present the purity, positivity, and beauty of Varanasi at the wedding,” adding that the event would “pay tribute to India’s glorious culture and heritage, brought to life by thousands of artisans, weavers, and craftspeople.”
Nita Ambani’s red carpet gown, designed by couture house Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla and artisans Vijay Kumar and Monika Maurya, took over 40 days to create. The custom peach silk ghagra was a highlight of the event’s fashion.
