An (estimated) $600 million wedding.
One that lasted a few months.
One whose coverage was splashed across the media.
Why did it cost so much?
Reportedly $10 million was paid to fly down just one singer – for an evening performance. Justin Beiber in Mumbai.
Undisclosed sums were also paid to Rihanna (who performed in Jamnagar).
To Katy Perry (who performed in Cannes).
To Backstreet Boys (who performed in Italy).
Also in the mix were Rema and Luis Fonsi, and top Indian singers as well including A.R Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal and Sukhbir.
Multiple western (read largely American, a few British) celebrities were also flown down, from entertainers across the spectrum to business leaders (heads of Samsung and Facebook were in attendance) and politicians (Indian governing and opposition leaders were all there, as were former presidents and prime ministers from across the world!). At some point Ivanka Trump, Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Boris Johnson were spotted.
You do the math.
Especially when you add the oh-so-traditional pre wedding celebrations that began months earlier.
In total, thousands of people were invited and fed.
Over a hundred chefs – many helming Michelin star restaurants were especially flown. It is quite another matter to guess how many Gujjus actually even sampled Chef Virgilio Martínez’ Peruvian ceviche!
Yes, flowers – above a certain level were bought out. Thank you Preston Bailey.
Yes, with so many celeb guests, designers, hair salons and stylists were said to work round the clock.
Yes, a lot of backend operations – caterers, event equipment suppliers a.k.a tentwalas, transporters, hotels, event managers, suppliers of a zillion types of materials – from customised toiletries to laddoos to photo frames. Even paanwalas had their hands full.
Retail and fashion analysts said that although it was a private event, it would change the course of the estimated $75 billion wedding market in India, which is already the driving force for fashion designers in the country, according to WWD.
Many aspects that are not usually associated with traditional Hindu (and we suspect in other faith-based weddings) came to the fore. I was called by a leading London newspaper to comment – and indeed explain what a ‘pre-wedding’ is. Was.
Not to be overlooked is the, reportedly, 800-guest cruise around the Mediterranean, reportedly costing $150m. And a sojourn at Lake Como, the summer playground of the rich.
All to witness a couple getting wed.
The spill-off
Of course, the luxury sector benefitted. For a purveyor of luxury retail brand, spanning sectors – apparel, watches, jewellery, footwear et all – just about every one would have been spotted during the myriad events! Just look up any social media for the details of who wore what when.
Emeralds have hitherto been a semi-precious stone in the Indian jewellery lexicon. The OTT usage of the green stone by the Ambanis has seen a sudden spurt in its demand in Jaipur’s jewellery markets. Yes, while the bride’s neck pieces were crafted by Mumbai jeweller Nisha Mehta and Jaipur Jewels, matriarch Nita Ambani’s came from the family’s favourite jeweller, Viren Bhagat.
Almost every member of the family is adorned with emeralds, which have been labelled the ‘dazzling wedding trend of the year’. Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Karan Johar and even Nick Jonas sported emeralds. Just how far behind will the well-heeled Indian consumer be?
Incidentally, India’s most lusted after wedding legenga designer, Sabyasachi Mukherji, was conspicuous by his absence. Instead, the honours for designing the young couple’s main attires went to fam fav Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla.
Veteran designer Manish Malhotra, best known for designing ensembles for many Bollywood stars, was another leading couturier. Well, again it boils down to just business. Ambanis own or have a controlling stake in multiple Indian designer brands, including Mr. Malhotra’s – and many others such as Raghavendra Rathore, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, Ritu Kumar and Satya Paul.
Unsurprisingly, most of the Ambani owned brands were very well flaunted at the wedding, while those owned by rival Aditya Birla Group, such as Sabyasachi, were conspicuous by their almost absence (the groom was spotted in a Sabya ensemble at one point)! And you thought couture was bipartisan!
The bridegroom’s friends (or best men, not quite a Hindu tradition) were apparently gifted Audemars Piguet watches in 18-karat pink gold, estimated to have cost more than a crore rupees (approx. US$ 120,000). Each.
All of this was splashed across every type of media platform for about five months. The eagerness to have just about every stitch on the cocktail party dress of every side eye by a leading celebrity at the endless events had visual evidence – which was helpfully printed, shown and posted with increasing frequency in this period.
Influencers in India, and one suspects abroad too, were paid to repost content about the wedding. Sometimes for as less as ₹200 ($2.50). Some were paid gazillions apparently. On LinkedIn, Kavya Karnatac writes she “was offered 3.6 lakhs for Ambani’s PR activation”. She says she declined. A column in The Wire mentions, “this wasn’t just a wedding, it was a powerful political statement.”
As a side note, the Indian election to the nation’s parliament – which incidentally was numerically not just the largest democratic election ever, but also the longest, with just polling alone spanning 45 days, also happened simultaneous to the wedding, and still could not match the length of ‘this spectacle of excess’, as many memes termed it!
The wedding was held in the middle of Mumbai and caused enough disruption to ensure that offices in the vicinity were closed. WFH was the diktat.
Of course, some did speak up against what they termed as ‘crass’ displays of wealth. Perhaps they missed the point that this was something that went well beyond – an opportunity for one of the richest men in the world to display the extent of his wealth.
More significantly, some experts laid out the case for why Mukesh Ambani has been so aggressive in their overt display for their youngest son’s wedding. According to Bloomberg, “He is now a purveyor of mass entertainment, a media mogul preparing for the stock-market listing of a digital empire worth as much as $112 billion, according to Jefferies. And what better way to start the countdown than by inviting the world’s rich, glamorous and powerful to a five-month-long wedding extravaganza?”
Of course, there is precedence to opulence at this scale. For his daughter’s wedding in 2004, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal had hired the Palace of Versailles. Two years later, he bought the largest steel maker in the world, Arcelor.
Is $600 million (about ₹4,440 crore) an adequately large enough figure? The wedding apparently cost about 0.5% of Mr. Ambani’s wealth, according to an Al Jazeera estimate. Surely chump change for one of the richest men on the planet. Experts are already speculating on the luxury brands the Ambanis are eyeing as their next acquisitions.
Will more people partake of the brands visible during the wedding? Will more global weddings or social events be held in India? Will India attract more investment? “Hosting the wedding in India at such a scale was a strategic move by the Ambanis, showcasing their confidence in the local market and aligning with the broader ‘Make in India’ initiative,” says a piece in a non-bylined article in The Economic Times. “This choice has inspired other affluent families to host their celebrations within the country, thereby supporting local businesses.”
Meanwhile, Harish Bijoor, business and brand strategy expert, told Business Today, “It is suffice to say that the wedding economy contributes substantially to the country’s GDP. As money is being spent on weddings, the economy gets fuelled up and aids its growth. Such spending initiates a virtuous cycle creating more jobs, activities, income and, consequently, more money into the hands of people.”
According to estimates by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the country’s apex industry body of traders and retailers, typically, in a wedding nearly 80% of the expenditure is incurred on goods and services.
Commenting on the growing wealth gap in India and in the context of this wedding, economists Josh Felman and Arvind Subramanian call it the ‘2A variant of India’s stigmatised capitalism. Favouring a tiny coterie is one reason, they say, why foreign direct investment into India is sliding and private capital expenditure is stagnant. Nobody wants to go up against the national champions.
Of course, there is something disingenuous in suggesting that the oligarchs have provided employment and increased business opportunity in a nation where the government claims to provide subsidised ration to 800 of its 1,400 million citizens, beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)!
When you have the Kardashians, Mr. Bieber and John Cena at a family wedding, it’s not quite about the appeal to Davos or Mensa folk. The spectacle in the name of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant has made its mark, especially for those following popular culture.
It is expected to propel business in some spaces, irrespective of whether it is transformative or not. Still calling it a wedding? As The Financial Express wrote, “indeed, there are a lot of business strategies to learn from the Ambani family”.
PS: For those overdosing on the shenanigans, and bemoaning their end, there’s good news – it’s far from over. Reports indicate the Ambanis will have ‘post-wedding’ celebrations in Stoke Park Hotel in UK, incidentally, owned by them. By then the anniversaries will begin. The soap, and the resultant publicity, continue.
