Ambanis: Meet the tycoons behind the grand Indian wedding

Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest person, has been gaining attention in India for the past several decades.

The whole country and the world have enthralled his father’s lavish wedding celebrations, not because he has completed a significant purchase or cut a sizable philanthropic donation.

The pre-wedding events, which began in March, have put the Ambani home strongly at the heart of some breakfast, lunch and dinner tables conversations.

Anant Ambani, the youngest child of Mukesh Ambani, tied the knot with his long-time girl Radhika Merchant at a family-owned convention center in Mumbai on Friday, in a pinnacle of six-month-long ceremonies that have taken position across the globe.

Although American weddings can be luxurious, the sheer size and scope of the Ambani jamboree have apparently outshoned the celebratory zeal displayed by former royals.

The unwavering appearance of Bollywood A-listers at every celebration, the million-dollar shows by international pop stars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, and a large number of VVIP officials scurrying over the events have been a source of endless feed for the photographers.

Consider some of the international aristocracy who made it to the functions- Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg, Samsung CEO Han-Jong Hee, Bill Gates, former US President Donald Trump’s child Ivanka, former British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Sir Tony Blair, Fifa leader Gianni Infantino and the Kardashian sisters.

And the list goes on.

” These are very busy people. They are n’t coming just to have fun”, James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, told the BBC.

The Ambanis are regarded as strategic partners and as a very large industry, as the following statement implies to you:” This tells you that international business leaders believe this.”

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The Ambanis are frequently referred to as India’s most well-known company home.

They are the owners of Reliance Industries, an oil-to-telecoms company led by Mukesh Ambani’s parents, Dhirubhai Ambani, a controversial politician with a questionable past who skillfully navigated India’s contentious pre-liberalization regime while generating huge success for his agency’s owners.

After what might be considered one of India’s most bloody inheritance wars, Dhirubhai passed away in 2002, and the kingdom he founded was divided between his two sons, Anil and Mukesh.

Since therefore, the boys ‘ wealth have diverged, with the younger Ashish declaring bankruptcy and Mukesh pivoting more and more to consumer-facing corporations, even while retaining his pole position in Reliance’s foundation- hydrocarbons.

The largest oil refinery in the world, located in Jamnagar, in western India, is owned by him.

Reliance has recently welcomed some of the most well-known luxury brands from Versace to Bottega, Versace to Valentino.

Among other things, the company now owns a team in the world’s richest cricket tournament and the iconic British toy retailer Hamleys.

It paid £57 million to acquire the historic country club Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire in 2021.

In its most recent attempt to transform the industrial moorings of the business, Reliance earlier this year signed a binding pact to merge its entertainment platforms with Disney. With rights to cricketing competitions and international shows, Mukesh Ambani becomes a formidable player in the digital streaming space thanks to the agreement.

The conglomerate, however, actually started its shopping spree during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it received billions of dollars in funding from more than a dozen global players, including Meta and Google. The intention behind the partnership with Meta was to connect JioMart’s more than 400 million users in India to WhatsApp’s online grocery store.

Due to the aggressive pricing strategy employed by the company, foreign competitors like Netflix and Amazon are in serious trouble.

The Ambanis are one of a select few who have benefited from the Indian government’s policy of awarding preferential contracts to a few local tycoons, according to analysts who claim foreign players occasionally complain of a lack of level playing field.

” Foreign players face a difficult choice”, says Mr Crabtree. They can either get into bed with Reliance or fight with it. Amazon has chosen to fight while Zuckerburg has chosen to partner with them. But these battles are often very costly, and foreigners end up losing”.

Now, Mukesh Ambani’s next target is financial services, with Reliance entering into a joint venture with US-based BlackRock for a brokering and wealth management business.

Not surprisingly then, for the Ambanis, this is much more than just a wedding.

It is a show of strength and of the clout they command, says Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy specialist. ” It’s a show of the fact that this family is a magnet that attracts people from all walks of life- business, politics and entertainment”.

He adds that the media frenzy around it is a way for them to “make a personal event even more personal to a whole world” – such as the Reliance product and service consumers, for example, who would never have received an invitation.

If the Ambani patriarch, Dhirubhai, was credited with introducing the stock market to India’s retail investors, his son Mukesh is well recognised for creating a myriad touchpoints between his businesses and the average Indian consumer.

The Ambani stable produces a large portion of what Indians consume today, from the movies they watch to the clothes they wear, and possibly even how they will act in the future.

For the family to market its brand to India’s expanding consumer base, there could n’t have been a better occasion than a stunning wedding.

And sure enough, the wedding has captured the hearts of both Indians and foreigners.