Conspicuous consumption and “opulence on steroids” may be the way of Indian billionaires but it is a questionable look for western wannabe-trendsetters such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg and Ivanka/Jared Kushner. The Mukesh Ambani pre-wedding celebrations recently had a thousand famous guests from the worlds of business, sport and film who were treated to fine dining, personal make-up artists and hair stylists and treated to performances by some of the world’s best-known stars including Rihanna and Cirque du Soleil. Even the Daily Mail was horror struck as the event took place “just yards from where some of the poorest people on earth eke out a living”.
Note pre-wedding of Anant Ambani to Radhika Merchant. The actual junket takes place on July 12th and is expected to cost even more than the £100 million this warm up did.
The Ambani business empire embraces oil, telecoms and textiles with father Mukesh intending to hand over his company soon to his twin daughter and son Isha and Akash, and his youngest son Anant.
Mukesh Ambani, 19 April 1957 7.47pm Aden, Yemen, has a workaholic 6th house go-ahead last degree Aries Sun conjunct Venus trine an influential and controlling Pluto in his career 10th. His Sun Venus oppose Neptune and square Uranus in Leo giving him a trailblazing streak. He also has Mars in his financial 8th in a hard-edged opposition to Saturn and square a confident, lucky Jupiter. And a build-a-business Grand Trine with Earthy Venus in Taurus trine a Capricorn Moon trine Pluto. A powerhouse chart.
His twins, 23 October 1991, are also ultra-determined with a Sun Libra conjunct Mars in Scorpio square Saturn types. Son Anant, 10 April 1995, who has had health and weight problems is deemed the least experienced of the three – with a Fire Grand Trine of an Aries Sun Mercury trine Moon Mars in Leo trine Jupiter in Sagittarius – confident and full of ideas though not always realistic or well-grounded.
His fiancée Radhika, daughter of a wealthy industrialist and a dancer, 18 December 1994 – born three weeks before Bianca Censori (see Kanye West post below) has a Sagittarius Sun Mercury with an edgy Saturn opposition Mars square Pluto conjunct Jupiter – supremely confident and also submissive. Her Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn square his Sun Mercury – so not the easiest of combinations.
Their relationship chart looks challenging with a composite Sun Mercury opposition Mars square Pluto – a real power imbalance leading to a reservoir of resentment. What’s more the actual wedding of July 12th is when tr Uranus Mars in late Taurus will rattle up that composite T square – so the wedding will be even more fraught than the usual over-the-top sumptuous nuptials.
Add On: Nita Ambani, 1 November 1963, wife of Mukesh, and mother of three, regularly listed by Forbes amongst its influential women business leaders in Asia list is a philanthropist, art collector and the owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Mumbai Indians. In 2023, she launched the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai.
She has an ultra-determined stellium in Scorpio with her Sun, Mercury, Neptune in Scorpio conjunct and Venus close by. Her Neptune sextile Pluto is inconjunct a yod focal point Jupiter giving here the ability to make positive social changes although over confidence and Jupiterian excess can be a downside.
Her Uranus Pluto in Virgo fall in her husband’s 10th house so she will keep him on his toes exploring new ventures and constantly looking for the next trend.
Their relationship chart has (probably) a Grand Trine of Jupiter trine Neptune trine Moon, hinting at an optimistic, look-on-the-bright-side approach; though since it also (probably) focuses onto Pluto in opposition to the Moon as the driving planet – power and influence will be motivating forces. There is also an affectionate composite Sun Venus conjunction squaring onto Neptune which could be blissed out or not always realistic. Plus a loaded composite Mars Pluto conjunction again hinting that power is a driving force. Handling that kind of wealth and influence is not easy.
True the Ambanis own reliance which has borrowed billions from the national banks, so it’s their wealth plus more the political favour of the ruling party that they leverage. Nita Ambani has her Jupiter in Aries trine and Saturn in Aquarius opposite Anant’s moon and mars in Leo so though she’s an indulgent mother his weight is probably a sore spot in the mother son relationship. It’s quite common for Indian moms to mollycoddle their children especially sons even more so if they’re seen to be imperfect. Anant ambanis moon conjunct mars shows some emotional volatility. His Saturn opposite Radhika’s Mars is not good synastry.
One other thing.
These amazing houses around the best parts of LA and similar places are enormously expensive to maintain. Starting with the estate manager’s pay, if you can find him, plus all the staff, grounds, utilities, taxes and so on.
So how much money do you exactly have to earn to give that much for this stuff.
If I were earning billions, would I give millions just to maintain a house? I wonder. Maybe it would give me pleasure and quality of life that would be worth it. I’m asking myself.
And regarding Nita Ambani, I think I was reading this something like a day before you added the bit about her, the best part was when I read Mukesh gave her for some occasion an Aibus 319. I don’t know if I find that hilarious or something else entirely. Just like that you give your wife not a private jet, but an Airbus. Why?! What ’s she gonna do with it? Why does she need it? It’s just wild.
I just wonder… how do the personal fiances of such extreme wealth work… How do they pay the bills, do they have a regular income akin to salary as CEOs of respective companies, how is this pre-wedding party paid for, whence is all this money coming from to be used for personal disposable income. I don’t know the mechanics of all this. The daily lives of the ultrarich.
I remember years ago in the Vanity Fair there was an article about the rich from that place somewhere north of New York where Steven Cohen has a huge house and how much everything cost, including the stratospheric prices paid for the curtains…
The Nicola Peltz/Beckham wedding last year cost a reputed £3 million and I would imagine the ultra-rich pay for such events by selling off a few stocks and shares.
There was some comment when Prince Harry was married at a cost of around £42 million for the wedding that it was not a good look given some of the population were surviving on food banks. Though I suppose it could be argued the Royals do provide benefit in such spectacles by attracting tourists.
What is marginally different in India – and Morocco and Egypt which are the other countries I have visited and know slightly – is that there is vast wealth sitting within a few feet of extreme poverty. In Marakesh, five star hotels are neighbours with slums, just a few feet away from the entrance. The rich/poor contrast is extreme and very obvious.
You probably have a part of the way they pay for these things figured out right. Stocks and all.
I remember when two things.
First, one day it just struck me that many top-level celebrities are just high-class renters. They are rarely, if ever, buying a house in Bel Air or the superrich enclaves of South Florida for cash – it’s all some mortgages, they flashily pay for the house a big amount that way, sell the previous house to remortgage, the new buy ends in a swathe of headlines, then two or three years later they are decamping for a new house. Nothing is permanent. There is no legacy, no family inheritance passing from generation to generation, a house that was home to several lines before the current one, something beautiful that remains. So it all seems very Neptunian, an illusion of wealth. It looks one way, but in reality it is another thing.
The second thing is that there was a post on Reddit simply explaining how one buys a multimillion house. It seemed like such an easy job to do, obviously I think if you have at least some capital.
And regarding the contrast of rich and the poor, I think Brazil is the same way. You have the favelas, and next do them a garden city or quarter filled with glorious houses of the rich (and Brazilian architecture, both exterior and interior, of residential fare is exquisite).
The picture shows Anant Ambani with his mother Nita Ambani, not with his fiancée Radhika Merchant. Nita Ambani has played a supportive role in growing her husband’s business empire. It would be interesting to see how her chart works with that of Mukesh Ambani
Thanks. Have added. She looks quite a lady.
I do agree with the comment
“the vulgar way to flaunt wealth.”
At one point Mrs Zuckerberg complimented the groom on his watch only to get his response
it cost a million dollars!!
Hmm.., a million dollars on his wrist while a huge population of poverty stricken people don’t even have a guaranteed meal a day?!
Mrs Ambani Sr wore a million dollar necklace.
To impress her guests of her wealth.
Look around and take a humble approach to what so many Poor people in India barely survive
How they will never afford to eat well or have their medical needs taken care of some work so hard and barely rest or relax from the hard labor each day.
So such a vulgar way to brag and show their wealth. Is that happiness?
It is all relative. In that country, immense wealth conveys immense power. I hv long overcome my predjudices over the extremely wealthy. I will never know it but I can enjoy what I have at my level of life.
Thank you for highlighting this Marjorie. Our Sufi Mufti who leads our Sufi Meeting recently had a highly publicised ‘cheap’ Pakistani wedding and gave the money for the fireworks, drummers and clowns to his daughter for their home. He said that as Pakistanis we are simple and kind people who do not show off and rub each other’s noses into who can have the best and most vulgar wedding. That it is quite un-Islamic but it is un-Pakistani to behave in such a way. It may be coming from some Indian people’s influence? It was interesting that the Mufti was telling us that people go into debt for many years for these big weddings, which I did not realise! I never thought about it. Another thing, like the story you mention here – The guests DO NOT WANT TO BE AT THESE WEDDINGS and are there under suffrage. They do not enjoy these weddings and are all just waiting to find an excuse to leave. The irony of this all and all the wasted money and resources does not bear thinking of. We really must stop these silly show off weddings in Pakistani culture in the UK too.
What you don’t understand is that Indians in general waste far too much money on weddings. I am Indian and I see this at all levels of society, both in India, the UK (where I grew up), and the US. Ambani is merely doing the same thing on a grander scale. It is one reason nobody wants daughters in India-it costs so much to marry them off it can bankrupt parents. My brother’s wedding, in 1989, had 500 guests and cost a fortune. A total waste as they are now divorced. I refused to play this game and am that that rare thing-a never married Indian woman of 69. I can’t imagine anything duller than a wedding and refuse to attend these idiotic beanfeasts on principle. There’s also this-the Brits and other Westerners have done their fair share of silly resource-wasting events-look at the money wasted by/on the Royal Family. Why shouldn’t Indians do the same thing? The country is no longer ruled by the British and has every right to be stupid in the same way if it wants.
How can you even compare the money spent on UK royals, which is tax payers, to an individual spending THEIR money on their wedding?
It’s up to individuals how they want to spend their money. Who are we to judge?
What was embarrassing about Ambani’s wedding was their vulgar show off of their wealth to the world.
Furthermore, the sycophantic blanket coverage of this wedding by the Indian media suspending all other news for a week was not only nauseous but also corrupt.
It’s not His Money…it’s indian citizens money …anyone can grow exponentially rich when one has loans in billions waived off and also given more such loans while citzens r charged and have to go jobless yet pay skyrocketing food inflation just so these waive offs n free shower of wealth from their bank savings don’t show country collapsed…but this can’t go on as more n more jobless people commit suicide en masse with family being unable to buy even food but also harassed by govt Bank creditors n loan sharks…as buying by highest population gets minuscule these riches have already got uk citizenship like earlier fugitives n this opulence is to dump off all illicit wealth incase new regime comes in few mnths n all these have to pay taxes
Is that Billy Gates? Doesn’t he look a prat.
You should have seen Zuckerberg