What a $600m wedding says about India’s attitude to wealth

WHEN BEYONCÉ performed at a pre-wedding party for Isha Ambani in 2018, India was agog. Merely receiving an invitation conferred bragging rights on status-obsessed business leaders and politicians. The cost of the nuptials, with countless ancillary events, was said to be in excess of $100m. That is a staggering sum for almost anyone—but not the Ambani family, which owns a controlling interest in Reliance Industries, the country’s most valuable company, dominating everything from telecoms to oil refining. Despite some anti-rich finger-wagging, many Indians appear to have viewed the event, which even the maharajas of yore would envy, as evidence that India—and Indian business—could once again glitter.

You might therefore have expected the months-long wedding celebrations of Isha’s brother Anant, which concluded on July 14th, to provoke a similarly positive response. It featured even more international stars (Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Rihanna), more bling (outfits embroidered in gold along with enough golf-ball sized rubies, diamonds and emeralds) and a higher price tag (the figure $600m has been bandied about). It contributed handsomely to India’s booming matrimony business, which generates perhaps $130bn a year in revenues (only food makes up a bigger share of Indians’ retail spending). Behind the innumerable beautiful saris at the Ambani wedding were thousands of designers, tailors and seamstresses; behind the dances and elaborate backdrops were thousands of choreographers, musicians and carpenters. The wedding filled hotels, private jets, a fleet of golf carts and at least one cruise ship.

Yet instead of awe and pride, the reaction this time was considerably more mixed. As the Juggernaut, an online publication, summed it up, it “shows us the power of Asia’s richest family. But it also gave us the ick.”