A ringside view of a starry night

After four months of one star-studded prewedding celebration after another, on Friday, Anant Ambani, 29, the youngest son of billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani, was finally set to tie the knot with Radhika Merchant, the daughter of pharma tycoons Viren and Shaila Merchant, at Mumbai’s Jio World Drive – a convention centre built and owned by the Ambanis. The sweethearts got engaged in a traditional ceremony in January 2023.

Stars of every firmament – Bollywood, Hollywood, industry and cricket – from John Cena to Rajnikanth, American influencer Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni – turned out in their glittering best, marking their presence so as to make the priciest of Swarovskis seem less than a gleam, at what is being billed as the wedding of the decade.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his family were among the many foreign dignitaries; he was seen dancing to the pulsating beat of 'bhangra' and posing for the paparazzi.

The Kardashian sisters, who arrived here late on Thursday to a red-carpet welcome at the Taj Mahal Hotel, took an autorickshaw ride through the bustling streets of Mumbai ahead of the wedding.

Wearing a red and golden sherwani, Anant arrived at the venue with his family – father Mukesh, mother Nita, sister Isha and her husband Anand Piramal, and brother Akash and his wife Shloka Mehta, as well as their children.

The sherwani, a ‘bandhgala’ with intricate golden embroidery, front-button closures adorned with precious gems, full-length sleeves, and padded shoulders, paired with white pyjamas, beige sneakers embellished with gold sequins, and a gold elephant brooch.

Bride Radhika Merchant looked gorgeous in the first look revealed by designer Rhea Kapoor. She wore an Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla lehenga, keeping with the Gujarati tradition of brides wearing red and white.

Not just the Ambani family but the guests also wore designer Indian dresses, complementing the groom-to-be.