The star-studded wedding of the daughter of Indian tycoon drew the world’s attention by spending 100 million U.S. dollars. Some say it was a symbolic event, displaying the potential of the Indian economy but others say it highlighted the gap between the rich and the poor in India.
The wedding is between Isha Ambani, the daughter Reliance Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani, and Anand Piramal, the son of Primal Enterprises Chairman Ajay Piramal.
According to Forbes, India's richest person Mukesh Ambani overtook Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma to become Asia’s richest person this year with a fortune of 47 billion dollars. Ambani came in 19th in the world’s richest person rankings.
Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002), founder of the Reliance Industries, moved to Yemen at the age of 16 and worked at a gas station of multinational gas company Shell. He went back to India in his 30s and established a textile trading company with 50,000 rupees (about 800,000 won).
The value of Piramal Group is estimated at 10 billion dollars. He started a textile business in 1930s and extended it to real estate and pharmaceutical businesses. After gaining business experience in his father’s company, Anand Piramal established a real estate company in 2011 and running development projects in Mumbai and neighboring regions.
The bride wore a saree with gold zari and a wedding gown accessorized with plenty of diamonds. Indian media estimated the clothes to be 900 million rupees (about 14.1 billion won). Her jewelries including diamonds and Zambian emerald necklace also attracted the audience’s attention.
Bloomberg sarcastically described the wedding, “a spectacle that could even put the fictional nuptials in the movie 'Crazy Rich Asians' to shame.” The New York Times pointed out an unequal distribution of wealth by saying, “A report last month by World Inequality Lab found that the richest 10 percent of India’s population controlled 63 percent of the nation's wealth.”
Jae-Yeong Yoo elegant@donga.com