Hate-Watching the Ambani Wedding
The months-long, reportedly $600-million affair shows us the power of Asia’s richest family. But it also gave us the ick.
In July, Mumbai — India’s commercial and entertainment capital — comes to a standstill. From the posh quarters of Nariman Point to the overcrowded suburb of Andheri, every inch of the city paints a portrait of helplessness due to the deluge of monsoons. Ask anyone, and they will tell you that the monsoons are the biggest inconvenience for Mumbaikars. They’d also say it’s absolute madness even to consider hosting a wedding at this time of year.
But then again, middle-class anxieties don’t apply if you’re someone with an estimated net worth of over $123 billion. Someone whose 27-story, 400,000-square-foot mansion in Mumbai is worth $4.6 billion. Someone who runs a vast conglomerate that reports over $100 billion in annual revenue. That is to say, the Mumbai monsoons can be the backdrop for a wedding extravaganza only if you’re Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia, the ninth richest globally, and the head of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private corporation. After all, to be an Ambani is to have the extreme privilege of living in Mumbai without ever having to touch the ground. (Antilia, the Ambani residence, contains three helipads.) But even extreme privilege has its limits.