Prominent personalities from various walks of life, including, former President Pranab Mukherjee, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, business tycoons, film stars, sports celebrities turned out for the “royal wedding” of scions of two top business conglomerates — Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal — here on Wednesday.
The celebrations began in the afternoon with the traditionally attired groom Anand arrived in a “baraat” (wedding procession) at the Ambanis’ Cumballa Hill palatial mansion ‘Antilia" in south Mumbai. The Piramals were seen dancing enthusiastically when they arrived at the wedding venue accompanied by some professional dancers.
The road leading up to “Antilia” was decorated with multi-hued fresh flowers, colourful lights and festoons to welcome the guests to the wedding. The video clips of both lit-up and decorated road went viral on social media all through the day.
The 27-storied Antilia, which is believed to be the most expensive private residence in the world, was decked up tastefully to welcome the guests.
Mukesh Ambani, Anant Ambani, Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehta accorded a grand welcome to the groom family members.
Ahead of Isha tying a nuptial knot with Anand, the parents — industrialist Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita, tycoons Ajay Piramal and his wife Swati personally welcomed the high-profile guests at “Antilia”.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee was received warmly by Mukesh Ambani’s younger brother and industrialist Anil Ambani. By then, many celebrities, including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Maneka Gandhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra CMs Vijay Rupani, Devendra Fadnavis, film personalities Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rajinikant and Aamir Khan had already arrived at the wedding venue.
Prominent invitees who made it to the wedding were Jaya Bachchan, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya, Karan Johar, Aamir Khan’s wife Kiran, SRK’s wife Gauri, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra and her husband Nick Jonas, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
Legendry cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Harbajan Singh several top sports personalities, prominent persons from business and corporate world like Sanjiv Goenka, K V Kamath, Deepak Parekh, Sashi and Anshuman Ruia were among those who made it to the wedding.
The grand wedding celebrations began a few days pre-wedding parties in Udaipur, Grammy award winner singer, Beyonce Knowles performed and former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was seen dancing with Shah Rukh Khan. A four-day special ‘Anna Seva’, and expo on traditional Indian handicrafts, besides other events were held to commemorate the wedding.
Ahead of the wedding ceremony, the bride’s gorgeous pictures were released by her make-up and style crew as she got ready for the "Maha Aarti". In a bright pink lehenga designed by Manish Malhotra, bride Isha —with a diamond necklace — looked stunning.
Ambanis and Pirmals had on October 30, announced the wedding date of Isha and Anand, through a joint statement.
The much-awaited wedding announcement comes nearly one and a half months after the two business families celebrated the couple’s formal engagement in Italy’s Lake Como, where Isha and Anand exchanged rings. The event was attended by several Bollywood personalities.
It may be recalled that in May this year, Anand Pirmal had proposed to Isha at a temple in the hill station of Mahabaleshwar in western Maharashtra.
Both the Ambani and Pirmal families have known each well for than four decades now.
Anand, who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School, is the founder of Piramal Realty, one of the country’s leading real estate companies.
Piramal Realty is the second start-up that Anand founded after passing out of the Harward business school.
Anand – who is also the Executive Director of the Piramal Group –had earlier launched Piramal Swasthya, a rural healthcare initiative that treats 40,000 patients a day.
Anand served as the youngest president Youth Wing of the Indian Merchant Chamber.
Isha, twin sister of Akash Ambani, is on the Boards of Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail and is credited widely with instilling a culture of youthful dynamism in the business.
Isha holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and South Asian Studies from Yale University. She will be completing her Master in Business Administration programme from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford by June.