Isha Ambani & Anand Piramal

The Big Fat Ambani-Piramal Wedding

The only daughter of Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani, Isha Ambani tied the knot with her childhood sweetheart Anand Piramal, son of business tycoon Ajay Piramal and scientist Swati Piramal, at their 27 floor residence, Antilla in December 2018.

Why Bollywood stars served food at Isha Ambani’s wedding?

Videos of Bollywood stars serving food at the Ambani’s pre-wedding rituals back in Udaipur went viral. The Bachchans (Abhishek, Amitabh and Aishwarya), as well as Amir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, enjoyed serving food in silver utensils to 5100 people!
Everyone wondered why the Indian actors were doing this at the wedding, until Abhishek Bachchan took twitter to inform people, “It is a tradition called ‘sajjan ghot’. The bride’s family feeds the grooms family,”. More explanations were given by several tweets that “Sajan Goth is a Hindu wedding ritual where the groom side is seated in an arrangement and the bride’s side makes sure that they eat well. Or rather, that they over-eat well. The bride’s side is to make sure that they are served everything on the menu.”

Who all were on the guest list?

The ceremony was not only attended by Indian film and entertainment stars but also by world political leaders. Among them was former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who also showed up at the wedding celebrations. There was a private concert by American singer Beyonce in Udaipur!
Attendees included newly-weds actor Priyanka Chopra and singer Nick Jonas, Deepika Padukone and husband Ranveer Singh, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, Rajinikanth with his wife Latha, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar with wife Anjali and son Arjun, Rekha, Madhuri Dixit, Alia Bhat, Shah Rukh Khan with wife Gauri Khan, Aamir Khan with wife Kiran Rao, Hema Malini, Kartik Aryan and the list was long!
Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Rajnath Singh, Mamata Banerjee, Maneka Gandhi, N Chandrababu Naidu, Rajinikanth, HD Deve Gowda, Vijay Rupani, Suresh Prabhu, Kiran Bedi, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, P Chidambaram and Smriti Irani were among the Indian politicians present.

The Pre-wedding ceremonies

From December 7 to 10, Pre-Wedding ceremonies of Isha and Anand were held in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Mehandi, Sangeet and many other rituals happened there.

#AnnaSeva                    

5100 people were served food for 4 days from December 7 to 10. Majority of the people who are being served food are with special ability.

#Pre-Wedding venue                                                           

The venue for the Pre-wedding function was Oberoi UdaiVillas- set amid gardens and overlooking Lake Pichola. The amenities in the luxury hotel included 2 upscale restaurants and a bar with lake views; private outdoor lakeside dining, a gym, a spa and an outdoor pool, plus a business centre, meeting rooms and event space. An exhibition called “Swadesh bazaar” was set up to highlight 108 traditional Indian art and craft items from different states of country.

#Pre-Wedding ceremony invitees

It was reported that more than 100-chartered flights landed at the Udaipur Airport. Since many invitees came from overseas, a special visa and immigration counter was setup at the airport.

Interesting!

Guests at the wedding celebrations in Udaipur had access to an app mapping out the activities.
The wedding invitation included necklaces and precious stones stacked in a two-tier floral box, costing a whopping Rs. 3 lakh each, reports said.
According to reports, citing people familiar with the planning, the week-long extravaganza is estimated cost was about $100 million. Although, Isha and Anand’s extravagant marriage is said to be India’s most expensive wedding, the event has become the second most expensive in the list of world’s top weddings following the marriage ceremony of Lady Diana with Prince Charles 37 years ago in 1981.

Isha wore a gold and diamond dress worth Rs. 90 crores, sources revealed. The wedding dress was a 16-panelled ghagra in 2 shades of off-white which featured a trail. Each panel was hand embroidered. Every flower or jaali was highlighted with crystals and sequins. Draped on her shoulder was her mother’s 35-year-old wedding sari that was done by designer duo- Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. Some reports also suggest that Isha Ambani’s wedding diamond dress, worth a fortune, is actually Miss Earth 2016 Kathrine Espin’s pageant outfit.
After the festivities, the newlyweds moved into their $64-million diamond-themed, five-storied, sea-facing mansion at the Gulita building in Mumbai.
Piramal Reality had acquired the prime property from HUL in 2012 beating bidders like Anil Ambani and Gautam Adani among many others to make luxury apartments here, a part of which was to be retained by Ajay Piramal, Isha’s father-in-law.

Wedding Highlights

The Ambanis roped in American pop superstar Beyoncé Knowles. Multiple reports state that Beyonce charges $3 million to $4 million (about Rs 21-28 crore) for private appearances. One can only guess how much Ambani paid to hire Beyonce for a private concert in Udaipur!

-Salman Khan did an SRK number as a background dancer. Salman danced to the tune of SRK’s ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ (KKHH), and that too, in the background, and he seemed happy about it.

-We have seen Beyoncé in Indian clothes, wearing an Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla attire in ColdPlay’s Hymn for the Weekend video. Beyoncé set the stage on fire with Indian designer clothes as she performed Ed Sheeran’s Perfect among many other numbers.

–Beyoncé wore a bejeweled swimsuit featuring over 850 crystals along with 150 elephant-sized pearls and tribal beads. The sleeves were crafted in 800 strands of hand-sewn black Raffia. Her Indian dress was a caped red-and gold gown with gold flats. Stylist Marni Senofonte chose the headpiece, earrings and hand jewelery to go with the swimsuit.

–Gauri Khan’s dance with Shah Rukh Khan was the talk of the town for a long time as she performed after decades. What was more interesting is Aishwarya and Abhishek dancing together on the hit number from their movie Guru, a flick based on the life of Isha’s grandfather.

-Karan Johar is a brilliant director, producer and anchor. But as he did Kathak, people could see the marvelous and uninhibited dancer in him too!

-In the circulating videos, Nita Ambani was seen dancing to the tunes of song “Mahi Ve” from the movie ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ with her sons Akash Ambani and Anant Ambani on stage as the bride-to be joins in later with her father. However, Nita Ambani didn’t just match the steps with her sons but with husband Mukesh Ambani as well on movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan’s title track.

-Besides more than 100 flights, the Ambanis and Piramals had booked all the five-star hotels of the city (Udaipur for the pre-wedding) and over a thousand luxurious cars (Jaguars, Porches, Mercedes, Audis and BMWs) were made available at their guest’s disposal!