Weddings edify the power of commitment. This might be stating the obvious, but not if you’re an Ambani. The Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant pre-wedding extravaganza will invariably be commented upon for its inimitably lavish take on the big fat Indian wedding, but in reality, it fetishises commitment to an unprecedented level.
Take for example the guest list. Considering that apart from the staple of India’s who’s who, there’s Bill Gates, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Blackrock co-founder Larry Fink, Bhutan’s King and Queen, Qatar’s Prime Minister, Disney’s Bob Iger and the former Trump administration’s unofficial first-lady Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Why, some are asking, are these global super brands so “committed” to obliging Asia’s richest man? Why would they feel impelled to attend what is only after all a pre-wedding bash? The wedding, as is well-known, is scheduled for July later this year.
Among the more prosaic explanations is obviously friendship. No one can deny that the Ambanis are amiable to a fault and over the years, as their business worth has vaulted, so has their social stock. In global rarefied social circles, the word is out that an Ambani party invite is to die for. Indeed, curated Ambani bashes excel at evoking a sort of magical, “belle epoque” of a Louise XIV Versailles ball. Except, the Ambani palatial parlours mirror the resplendence of India’s exotic aesthetic.
Fittingly, the Anant and Radhika gala has taken place in a 3,000-acre garden in the Ambani home estate in Jamnagar. Only that their “Eden” is laden with the treacly essence of the famously fecund mango orchards — a fitting tribute for the couple’s storied love lore. Rihanna, dressed in a gossamer Arabian nights fantasy costume, has already given the party the frisson of Eastern sensuality. American David Blaine was on hand to create the “illusion” of mind-altering headiness. According to reports, guests were given directions to don “jungle fever” outfits for a glitzy cocktail party. There were visits to the Ambanis’ animal rescue centre. But only until 65 chefs made 2,500 palate tantalizing dishes.
But to ensure the presence of more than one social lodestar of our times attends takes more than just famed Ambani amiability and the allure of Indian cultural soft power.
The answer to this lies beyond the ho-hum, and one would daresay, a spot of pop psychology. So let’s turn to a harder reality.
Sometime ago, Mukesh Ambani did what Jamshedji Tata once came close to doing. Ambani succeeded in catapulting the India story to a global platform in an extraordinary strategic shift.
This pivot coincided with India’s own economic and financial reorientation. In a series of calibrated steps, India veered away from the licence raj that had snuffed out entrepreneurial nous to embrace economic liberalism.
A little over 20 years after Mukesh Ambani took over the Chairmanship of RIL, his tenure is marked by, as Money Control put it, “an unwavering attention year-on-year on creating more and more wealth not just for shareholders but for India, too, in the highest traditions of stakeholder capitalism”.
The coming Indian economic hegemony is but a sum-part of the can-do spirit of business czars such as Ambani.
The global titans (business and political nobility) at the latest Ambani social event are there also to prove their commitment to the burgeoning India story. Who, after all, would surrender an opportunity to catch the Indian consumers’ mind’s eye that no amount of marketing spend could buy.
It’s the India coming of age party that, in reality, no one wants to miss.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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