August 6, 2024
📰 FEATURE STORY
Was the Ambani wedding a bad look for India?
What can bring former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, WWE superstar John Cena, musician Justine Bieber, and reality star Kim Kardashian under one roof? There’s probably not much these people have in common except for being guests at the most lavish wedding of the year.
When the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, got married, the family put on a wedding that was a show in and of itself. Months of events culminated in a dazzling multi-day extravaganza. It became the subject of memes, praise, and ridicule on social media. Was this grand display of wealth and opulence a bad look for India?
Context
The groom was Anant Ambani, the 29-year-old son of Mukesh Ambani. Anant is a non-executive director at Reliance and sits on the boards of the Reliance Foundation and Reliance Industries. He’s also one of the directors of Jio Platforms Limited. His estimated net worth is about $40 billion. His father’s net worth is at least $120 billion.
The bride was Radhika Merchant, the daughter of Shalia and Viren Merchant. Viren is the CEO of Encore Healthcare. They’ve got an estimated net worth of $90 million. Radhika sits on the board of Encore.
The numbers for the celebrations are staggering. It began with the pre-wedding celebrations in March with 1,200 guests. Among them were Rihanna, her first full performance in eight years, business tycoons like Mark Zuckerberg, and entertainers like Akon and David Blaine. The fee for Rihanna to perform was somewhere between $6 and $9 million.
That was just one part of the pre-wedding festivities. There were others. Another was on a cruise between Italy and France with performances by The Backstreet Boys and more famous guests.
Ambani is no stranger to throwing lavish weddings. In 2018, he threw a star-studded wedding for the marriage of his daughter Isha with a performance from the one and only Beyonce. That wedding cost approximately $100 million.
By now, you get the idea. Asia’s richest man and his family like to throw grand spectacle weddings with famous people in attendance. He’s certainly not the first Indian to throw a lavish wedding, and he won’t be the last. It’s basically an Indian tradition. According to a report by WedMeGood, the Indian wedding industry has touched $75 billion in the 2023-24 season. That’s a robust recovery from the pandemic with 7-8% annual growth.
Wedding professionals have reported a significant increase in business from 2022 onwards. There’s a rise in destination weddings and the customer base is paying more attention to every detail and sparing no expense.
Amongst all the coverage of the latest Ambani wedding came this simple question – does such a display of wealth and luxury fly in the face of a country where inequality is increasing? Should the ₹5,000 crore the family reportedly spent on this wedding have been used for something good? Is it any of our business at all?
VIEW: Criticism is justified
Given the numbers on display, at some point, the Ambani family’s wealth has become somewhat abstract. What’s a few hundred crores here and there for people so rich? According to Oxfam, India had 9 billionaires in 2000. There are now 200 who collectively hold about $1 trillion in wealth. That’s nearly a quarter of India’s 2023 GDP, per Forbes. That’s a dizzying rise in wealth accumulation in a country where most live below or near the poverty line.
There’s a comparison to be made here of America’s Gilded Age, where extreme wealth and inequality were front and centre. The Ambanis could be seen as the first family of Indian capitalism. They’re also the proxy for India’s rapid economic rise. That rise hasn’t benefitted everyone. In fact, it hasn’t benefitted the majority to the extent that it has the Ambanis and the like. Apart from the rise in billionaires, it’s also the fact this amount of wealth has created a new kind of royalty in a land where maharajas aren’t a new concept. But we thought that was in the past.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once said at the Annual General Meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that showing off riches through lavish parties is as good as insulting the less privileged. He reminded business leaders that millions of Indians struggle for basic food and housing. On the political side of things, it didn’t help counter the narrative that the Ambani group of companies have largely benefitted from the Modi government’s business-friendly policies. Narendra Modi himself attended and blessed the couple.
COUNTERVIEW: Display of national pride
Weddings are obviously a big deal in India. To some, Ambani has worked hard from a young age, and God has blessed him and his family with riches. Wealth accumulation is something that many Indians see as aspirational and a sign of India’s economic growth and prowess. Since he has a lot of money, shouldn’t he be able to spend it in any way he wants to? For some, it’s that simple. If publicity is what the Ambanis wanted, they got a lot of free media. It was a hit on social media. A guilty pleasure, perhaps.
The Ambanis had the money to spend, and they did it. It’s an Indian tradition to throw big weddings. Even those from the middle class and lower tend to spend beyond their means on weddings. From a business standpoint, the Ambani wedding could be a boom for the broader Indian wedding industry. After all, weddings indicate one’s status and wealth in Indian society. Lavish weddings are aspirational.
For the Ambanis, this celebration was a display of national pride. Sure, it was an opulent affair, but it blended the modern and traditional in a way that didn’t seem contradictory. Some saw it as a display of Hindu pride (the Ambanis have restored several temples in the Jamnagar-Chorwad area). In the age of modern maharajas, they no longer pose for pictures or play polo. They’re investors, industrialists, and conservationists for a new aspirational India.
Reference Links:
- The son of Asia’s richest man gets married in the year’s most extravagant wedding – Associated Press
- Everything to Know About the Ambani Wedding – Vanity Fair
- A Wedding Puts India’s Gilded Age on Lavish Display – The New York Times
- India’s wedding industry soars to $75 billion, growing 7-8% annually – Mint
- The Ambani wedding: Awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping but still very embarrassing – The Telegraph
- The Ambani wedding: A spectacle of excess in an age of inequality – Frontline
- The political economy behind the Ambani wedding – Deccan Herald
- The Ambani Wedding: A Proud Display of Sanatana Dharma on The World Stage – News18
What is your opinion on this?
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a) The Ambani wedding was a bad look for India.
b) The Ambani wedding wasn’t a bad look for India.
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