Entertainment Desk:

Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, on Friday married pharmaceutical business heiress and childhood sweetheart Radhika Merchant amidst an unprecedented show of opulence attended by celebrities from across the world, including Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and who’s who of Bollywood and south Indian cinema.

Anant, 29, tied the knot with Radhika, daughter of Indian pharma tycoons Viren and Shaila Merchant, in a traditional Hindu ceremony at Mumbai’s Jio World Drive — a convention centre built and owned by the Ambani family.

Clad in a rust orange sherwani, the groom set off from Antilia, the Ambani family residence, in a luxurious red car covered in strings of white flowers for the marriage venue where the ‘barjaatri’ assembled for a short journey to the wedding mandap.

The three-day extravaganza wrapped up a string of lavish parties the Ambani family has hosted since March, which have featured performances by popstars including Rihanna and Justin Bieber.

Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe, Nigerian rapper Rema, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and global business tycoons including oil giant Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser and Samsung Electronics chairman Jay Lee and drug major GSK plc chief executive Emma Walmsley were in attendance at the event held in Mumbai.

Almost the entire top rung Bollywood actors from Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan were present, most of them with their families, while superstars Rajinikanth, Ram Charan and Mahesh Babu led the entourage from south Indian film industry.

A galaxy of Indian cricketers, past and present, from icons like Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to yesteryear great Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.

Designer duo Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla’s pastel hues dominated the Ambani family’s attire — from father and oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh, to mother Nita, sister Isha and her husband Anand Piramal, and brother Akash. Aakash’s wife Shloka Metha was the only exception who wore a pink lehenga adorned with crystals.

American actor and rapper John Cena and Tamil superstar Rajinikanth joined Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Anant Ambani for a dance. Shah Rukh Khan hugged and danced with Nita as she and her husband welcomed the actor’s and his family.

A three-day pre-wedding celebration was held in March in the family’s refinery township of Jamnagar in Gujarat that hosted tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in the 1,200-strong guest list and had an exclusive performance by Rihanna.

In May, the Ambanis had set off on a four-day Mediterranean cruise starting in the Italian city of Palermo, featuring on-deck concerts from the Backstreet Boys, Pitbull, and David Guetta, and a performance by Katy Perry at a masquerade ball at the Château de la Croix des Gardes mansion in France. The cruise ended in Italy’s Portofino. Last week, Justin Bieber performed at the ‘sangeet’ or musical night.

The wedding will be followed by a grand reception on July 14.

The Ambanis have not revealed how much Anant’s wedding is costing. But the gala scale of the celebration included a Rs 5-6 lakh per piece invitation card consisting of an intricate chest incorporating a mini silver temple and three Falcon-2000 jets being rented to ferry wedding guests to the event.

The grapevine has it that Rihanna had been paid USD seven million for her performance and Justin Bieber USD 10 million.

Mukesh and Nita in the past had lavish weddings for their other children too — Beyoncé performed at daughter Isha Ambani’s 2018 nuptials that boasted guests like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and a year later Coldplay’s Chris Martin performed at Aaksh’s pre-wedding bash in St Moritz, Switzerland, and Maroon 5 at his wedding in Mumbai.

The 2018 wedding of Isha was billed as the most expensive wedding in India to date with some estimates putting the cost up to USD 100 million.

Mukesh Ambani, 67, is at present the world’s 11th richest man with a net worth of USD 119 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index. He spent the last two decades in transforming Reliance Industries, founded by his father in 1966 as a stodgy oil and petrochemicals giant, into a global empire spanning telecoms, retail, financial services, cricket and luxury fashion.

Anant Ambani is involved in Reliance’s energy businesses and is on the board of Reliance Foundation.