Stuck in a traffic jam in the always chaotic Bombay, Mukesh Ambani suddenly turned off the car engine he was driving and turned to his girlfriend Nita, sitting in the passenger seat, to propose. The couple had only been dating for three weeks. He was already a millionaire heir working in his father's conglomerate, Reliance Industries. She came from a middle-class family and as a high school teacher, she earned barely 800 rupees per month, which is less than 10 euros at the current exchange rate, but in India in 1985, that salary was enough to make ends meet. Nita also practiced classical dance. It was during one of her performances that Mukesh's father, Dhirubhai Ambani, saw her on stage and, captivated by the beauty and personality of the young woman, asked her to meet his son because he wanted her to become his daughter-in-law.
Nearly four decades have passed since that proposal in the traffic jam. Mukesh Ambani (67) is the richest man in Asia thanks to an empire with interests in oil, gas, fashion, telecommunications, and retail. His personal fortune is estimated to be an astonishing $115 billion. His wife, Nita Ambani (60), a philanthropist and successful businesswoman, is one of the most powerful women in India.
The matriarch of India's most famous clan has been finalizing the details of what is being called the wedding of the year: Anant (29), the youngest of the three children of the Ambani couple, married his lifelong girlfriend, Radhika Merchant (29), who comes from another wealthy family. The daughter of two pharmaceutical magnates, she is the director of the Indian division of the multinational pharmaceutical company Encore Healthcare.
This three-day celebration will end on Monday after the traditional Hindu rituals, such as a ceremony called haldi, where guests apply turmeric paste on the arms and faces of the bride and groom for good luck and protection from evil spirits. There is also the mehndi, where a tattoo artist paints the bride's hands with various henna designs, and the sangeet, the grand wedding dance.
Manish Malhotra, one of the most famous designers in the country, who was hired by Nita to be the creative director of the wedding, revealed in a recent interview that it was the groom's mother who has been directing every detail of a grand celebration that actually began earlier this year with several massive events, including three lavish pre-weddings with thousands of guests.
The first event was a large community banquet for 51,000 neighbors from the western state of Gujarat, where Mukesh and Nita were born. At the beginning of the year, there was also a three-day carnival with 1,200 guests, including Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), featuring a performance by singer Rihanna. In June, they booked a luxury cruise in the Mediterranean for 800 people that started in Barcelona and was entertained by live performances by the Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, and the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Last week, at the final pre-wedding party in Bombay, Justin Bieber charged around $10 million for a private concert for hundreds of guests. "The Ambanis are our new Indian maharajas," commented popular Indian writer Shobhaa De in a post.
In some of these celebrations, all eyes were on Nita Ambani who, aware of all the media attention, has flaunted her jewelry collection and showcased some of her most extravagant pieces, such as a diamond and huge emerald necklace valued at over five million euros that she wore matching with a gold and ivory sari. She has also worn a 52.58-carat diamond ring valued at over half a million euros that once belonged to several Mughal empire queens. An ostentatious display of wealth and opulence that both fascinates the public and draws criticism in a country of extreme inequalities, where tens of millions of people live below the poverty line.
After getting married, Nita left her job as a teacher to lead one of the divisions of Reliance Industries, although last year she stepped down from the board to take charge of the Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Ambani empire.
Indian media, many of them controlled by the influential Mukesh, often highlight the social projects that Nita has spearheaded: from a network of safe shelters for poor families and women victims of domestic violence, to hospitals and the first Braille newspaper for the Hindu population.
In Bombay, a Latin American teacher who has been living in the financial capital of India for over a decade told LOC that he works at the most elite private school in the city, also founded by Nita to accommodate the children of the wealthiest and most influential families, offering extensive international programs to study part of their curriculum in prestigious schools in the United States.
Mukesh and Nita with their children Akash (left) and his wife Shloka, Anant, and Isha with her husband AnandAFP
Nita is also known for owning an Indian Premier League cricket team and being a member of the International Olympic Committee. A few months ago, she made headlines in many Indian newspapers when it was announced that she would be the chairperson of a new $8.5 billion media group resulting from the merger of Disney's Indian subsidiary with the media division of Reliance Industries. "With her new job, Nita Ambani has become the most powerful woman in India's media and entertainment sector," read an editorial in the local newspaper Hindustan Times.
A significant part of central districts in Bombay are paralyzed this weekend due to the grand Indian wedding. Many residents have protested against the closed roads and heavy traffic around the event venue, the luxurious Jio World Convention Center, owned by the Ambanis. Bombay residents who stayed at home are watching live broadcasts by local TV stations to follow the parade of Bollywood stars attending the wedding, as well as the prominent names from the country's business and political elite.
Many guests have arrived from different parts of the world on private jets chartered by a billionaire family that has been able to set aside the national debate surrounding the succession of the Ambani empire these days. The three children (twins Isha and Akash, 31, and Anant) hold positions on the board and are in the running to take over Reliance when the clan patriarch retires and the company passes into the hands of a third generation.