The youngest son of Asia's richest man is about to tie the knot, and what a party it will be. The Indian union of Anant Ambani—son of Reliance Industries CEO Mukesh Ambani, worth $118 billion—and his longtime girlfriend Radhika Merchant, daughter of pharma tycoon Viren Merchant, is touted as the "wedding of the year" in a country known for its over-the-top marriage celebrations. The expected price tag: too big to note. The wedding itself, to take place July 12 to 14, will follow at least three lavish pre-wedding parties. In March, 1,200 high-profile guests attended a three-day event in Jamnagar where "5,500 drones lit up the sky above a glass palace custom-built for the festivities," per CNN. Oh, and Rihanna was there to perform her first full concert in eight years.
Then in May, roughly 1,200 friends and family members joined the couple on a four-day Mediterranean cruise, where they were treated to performances by Katy Perry, the Backstreet Boys, Pitbull, David Guetta, and Andrea Bocelli, per CNN and Vanity Fair. Another get-together is scheduled for Friday. Justin Bieber will be paid $10 million, perhaps "the most he's ever earned from a single performance," to entertain guests at a 2,000-seat venue whose ceiling is "studded with 8,400 Swarovski diamonds," per the National Post. The wedding will take place the following weekend at the 27-story Mumbai home of the Ambanis and a family-owned convention center capable of holding more than 16,000 people.
A leaked invitation, in the form of a large lacquered red box, suggests there will be a wedding ceremony one day, a divine blessing ceremony the next, and a grand reception on the third day, per CNN. Adele, Drake, and Lana Del Rey are among the artists rumored to be performing, per the Post. Every detail "is designed to immerse guests in an atmosphere of joy, love and celebration," the wedding's creative director, famed designer Manish Malhotra, tells CNN. For some, the cost of all this is an insult to the country's poor. But, aware of this, the Ambanis held a mass wedding for 50 couples on Tuesday and gifted them groceries for a year, CNN reports. The couple's families also fed 51,000 locals before the party in March, per Vanity Fair. (More India stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
