It’s wedding season in india, and nothing is more important to indian families than getting their children hitched. The main point is to bring together families that match in terms of social class and level in the caste system.
If such a union succeeds, it is celebrated as lavishly as possible. So if you can afford to fly in the biggest pop star on the planet to perform at a pre-wedding party, you do it.
This is what happened at the wedding of isha ambani (27) and anand piramal (33), the offspring of two of india’s richest families. At a celebration last weekend at a palace in udaipur, northern india, US singer beyonce performed for 45 minutes. Two ex-U.S. Deaf ministers, hillary clinton and john kerry, were there dancing with bollywood superstar shah rukh khan to indian movie hits, according to a video posted on social media.
Dozens of private charter flights have been organized for hundreds of guests and five luxury hotels in udaipur have been rented out completely, according to media reports. Spending of up to 100 million U.S. Dollars (about 88 million euros) was speculated. That was two and a half times the cost of prince harry and meghan markle’s wedding in england.
Wednesday’s wedding took place not in a palace or castle, but in the 27-story private home of the ambani family in the entertainment and financial metropolis of mumbai (formerly bombay). The luxury tower, called antilia, reportedly has several helipads, a five-story garage and a room where you can make it snow. He was adorned with countless garlands of red, orange and yellow flowers. Dancers led the wedding procession, the guests drove up in vintage cars, the bride’s brothers rode in on horses. Security guards with rapid-fire weapons stood guard.
Indian media offered live tickers of the event and reported excitedly on the celebrities who arrived one by one. In addition to politicians, athletes and fashion designers, there were a whole series of big bollywood stars such as shah rukh khan, salman khan, amitabh bachchan and priyanka chopra with her newlywed husband, u.S. Singer nick jonas – the couple had married only a few days earlier in india. Some twitter users mocked that the wedding made the "nickyanka" celebrations, which were also not exactly small, look shabby.
Others wrote ironically of the mingling of a rich girl with an ordinary boy. Mukesh ambani, the bride’s father, is india’s richest man. The chief executive and principal shareholder of energy, textiles and mobile conglomerate reliance industries landed in the 19th spot on "forbes" magazine’s youngest list of the world’s richest people. Place. Its assets are estimated at more than 40 billion dollars. The bridegroom’s father, real estate and pharmaceutical magnate ajay piramal, has a net worth of just $4.3 billion, according to forbes.
In view of the poverty in india, however, criticism of the pageantry also arose. More than half of the country’s 1.3 billion people live on less than $3.20 a day, according to the world bank. Many have to make do with even less. The richest 10 percent of the population own more than 60 percent of india’s wealth. From their luxury high-rise in the south of mumbai, the ambani family not only has a view of the arabian sea, but also of the country’s roughest slum: dharavi, made famous in the film "slumdog millionaire.
"Imagine what effect it would have had if mukesh had donated the billions of rupees he spent on the silly dance and music spectacle and charter flights to social causes," tweeted former diplomat K.C. Singh.
Perhaps, despite all the fascination with such a splendid wedding, a rethink is slowly taking place in india. On thursday, the delhi metropolitan government said it would limit the number of guests and the amount of food at weddings in the future. The delhi supreme court had ordered the government to act against the opulence of the celebrations. "This is unacceptable in a city that is experiencing a drinking water crisis and even alleged starvation deaths," chimed in.