Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's Wedding, Explained

By Olivia Craighead, a news writer for the Cut who covers pop culture and celebrity.  Previously, she wrote about pop culture and entertainment at Gawker.

The biggest wedding of the year is happening next week. Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant will finally tie the knot after months of anticipation. The couple has already thrown two huge pre-wedding celebrations — a multiday party in India and a Mediterranean cruise — but their actual nuptials are sure to top both events. Here’s everything you need to know about the wedding.

Anant Ambani is the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in Asia. Mukesh is the head of Reliance Industries, one of those massive conglomerates that deal in energy, oil, telecommunications, and entertainment all at once. Radhika Merchant’s father is Viren Merchant, the billionaire CEO of Encore Healthcare. Both Anant and Radhika work for their respective fathers’ companies.

The couple has been together since 2017 when they met through mutual friends. “That first meeting just sparked something special between us, and it wasn’t long before we started dating,” Merchant told Vogue in March. The two have a shared passion for animals, with Ambani recently opening Vantara, the largest animal-rehabilitation center in the world. Merchant told Vogue she hoped the spectacle of their wedding festivities would bring attention to the sanctuary.

I feel like I already heard about these two getting married, you may be thinking to yourself. That is probably because Ambani and Merchant have had two high-profile pre-wedding celebrations, both of which scored a coveted Vogue Weddings placement.

In March, the couple kicked things off with a massive weekendlong party in Jamnagar, India. You might have seen videos of Rihanna performing (which she reportedly did for a cool $9 million). The guest list at the party featured many big-name CEOs including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Bob Iger, and Sundar Pichai. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner scored invites. And from the Bollywood world, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan both attended.

Then, in May, the couple kept the good times rolling with a four-day Mediterranean cruise. As with the other pre-wedding event, the guest list included 1,200 people, many of whom were friends of the couple who live in the U.S. or Europe and couldn’t make it to India for the first celebration. The couple settled on a cruise after struggling to find a venue that could accommodate 1,200 people. Instead of Rihanna, the cruise attendees were treated to Backstreet Boys and a DJ set from David Guetta one night, performances from Katy Perry and Pitbull on another, and on the last night, guests enjoyed a sunset performance of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from Andrea Bocelli. In their second Vogue feature, Merchant told the magazine, “It was just the most magical evening.” I bet!

After months and months of buildup, the couple will finally tie the knot on the weekend of July 12. It will be another multiday affair, this time in Mumbai at the Ambani family home, a 27-story building called Antilia. They’ll also be using the Ambani-owned Jio World Convention Centre, which can fit more than 16,000 people. While many details of the celebration are not yet public, there are a few things we can expect.

The guest list will be filled with some of the most powerful people in the world, there will be some truly magnificent bridal fashion, and someone incredible will perform. It’s hard to say who, though, given how many big names have already been hired for the pre-wedding events. When Ambani’s older sister got married in 2018, she had Beyoncé perform. Anant’s brother had Coldplay at his wedding in 2019. Would they want to copy their siblings? Who else is left? Unfortunately, Taylor Swift is already booked for Milan that weekend.