Unless you're living under a rock, you must have come across the grand wedding of the youngest son of Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, either on social media or in a conversation with a friend, colleague or a family member over the unending functions, to perform in which some of world's biggest celebrities like Rihanna and Justin Bieber have flown into India.
Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's wedding is on July 12 but the first batch of pre-wedding festivities took place in March this year in Gujarat's Jamnagar, the second part was a luxury cruise from Italy to France in June and the final instalment of those is taking place now in Maharashtra's Mumbai in the days leading to the big day.
Visuals from the Ambani wedding have flooded social media, showing global singing icons Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Diljit Dosanjh and top bollywood celebrities performing in the functions.
Brace yourself for feeling poor: The stimated cost of the wedding's entirety of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant is a whopping Rs 4,000-5,000 crore, which apparently is just 0.05 per cent of the net worth of Ambanis.
Grand Ambani Wedding Cost Decoded
While an expenditure of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore is unimaginably high for a wedding, the Ambani family still is spending lesser percentage of their total wealth than what average Indian families spend.
Nitin Chaudhary, founder of NC Financial Advisory Services, shared insights on the extravagant wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, saying there is a "stark difference between what an average Indian family would be spending in a child’s marriage against what the Ambani family is spending as a percentage of total net worth of the family."
Explaining further, Chaudhary said, a family which has a net worth of Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 1 crore will not shy away from spending Rs 10-15 lakhs on their child’s wedding. "Similarly, a well-to-do family having a net worth of around Rs 10 crore would easily spend anywhere between Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 1.5 crore on a wedding. Considering that even the community which the family belongs to impacts the extravagance or simplicity of the wedding and the expenditure might vary" Chaudhary said.
Now when we look at all these figures in terms of percentage, we can actually see that any Indian family across the sect would land up spending between 5 per cent to 15 per cent of their total wealth for a wedding, Chaudhary said, giving a disclaimer, "even though these are all estimated figures but we feel they are more or less close to actual numbers that might work out."
Ambani Wedding Estimates
Even though multiple reports have put different estimates of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's wedding, it surely is of thousands of crores given the arrangements, the artists and the magnitude of the extravaganza.
Giving an estimate of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore, Chaudhary said it is important to look at the percentage expenditure. "As per Forbes Mr. Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is 123.2 Billion Dollars (Rs 10,28,544 crores) in the year 2024."
"Considering INR 5,000 crores as expenditure, this works out to be approximately $0.6 Billion," Chaudhary said, adding that as we look at it in percentage terms, it works out to be approximately 0.5 per cent of the Ambani family’s net worth.
Ambanis Actually Spending Less Than Average Indian Family: 'All About Perspective'
Nitin Chaudhary said "there is a stark difference between what an average Indian family would be spending in a child’s marriage against what the Ambani family is spending as a percentage of total net worth of the family.
"Without prejudice, this leaves us with a question to ponder upon. Should an average Indian family bring down their expenses related to marriage in their family? Or is the Ambani family going beyond what is needed to celebrate a marriage in their family?" Chaudhary said.
Magic is all about the perspective of absolute figures vis-à-vis percentages, he said, adding that the entire gamut of finance and the financial products is hidden in this.
