Mukesh Ambani loves Bollywood and watches three films a week because "you need some amount of escapism in life," as he says. This deep love for Bollywood was in full display recently on the occasion of his daughter Isha’s marriage. The opulent display completely pulled out all the stops in a never before seen glittering array of stars – more A-list stars per square foot than ever seen before. Some were hugely impressed by it all; others a little less so by what they saw as an ostentatious, self-indulgent gloating; a cringe-worth celebration of conspicuous consumption.
Many tongue in cheek tweets commented upon the union between the exceedingly rich boy and the dizzyingly rich girl.
Here we see the bride's mother Nita Ambani dance at the hugely elaborate pre-wedding sangeet evening. Her father-in-law Dhirubhai had famously ‘chosen’ her for his son when he saw her at a dance performance and she perhaps felt the need to reprise her dancing days at this significant occasion.
Look carefully – the backup dancer is Salman Khan. This is clearly some sort of fantasy-fulfillment for Mukesh Ambani’s son Akash seen here jerking and flailing about; grinning enthusiasticly but embarrassingly clumsy and uncoordinated. Here is a person clearly devoid of a single musical bone in his body.
While some were amazed at the breathtaking self-indulgence of it all, others were struck only by the dreadfully substandard and wildly uncoordinated dancing on display. This was so utterly embarrassing that most people were relieved that there was a madly colourful dance backdrop that one could look at instead.
Here Aishwarya and Abhiskek shake a leg to a song from the movie Guru; which they both starred in. Also significant is the fact that the movie was based on the life and times of Dhirubhai Ambani, the patriarch of the Ambani clan and business empire.
While Shah Rukh Khan is candid about dancing for weddings as long as the price is right, his wife Gauri is not known for her dancing feints. Yet here the Ambanis manage quite a coup by getting parts of both of Bollywood’s power couple to shake a leg on stage together.
Katrina Kaif performed. Priyanka Chopra was also roped in reportedly. Karan Johar shook a leg; something he doesn’t (and shouldn’t) usually do. Some were deeply envious that the event featured wall to wall stars; others thought that Bollywood biggies had sacrificed self-respect to perform at the wedding. It is more likely that each of those who performed has a personal equation with the mighty Ambanis and may simply have found it difficult to say ‘No’ to a ‘request’ such as this.
She may not be interested in performing for the hoi polloi in India, but this is one show that Beyonce Knowles couldn’t or maybe didn’t want to say no to.
Even as the Ambani family splurged obscene amounts of money on celebrities and various over the top celebrations that could outclass most award ceremonies, they also did this. You could call it a photo op or a token gesture to offset all the other conspicuous consumption... but then the Ambanis are known for their business empire, not their philanthropy.
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