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Dan Latu and Steffie Drucker
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- Anant Ambani, a son of the richest man in India, is marrying Radhika Merchant this weekend.
- The over-the-top festivities will partially held at the family's luxurious Mumbai home, Antilia.
- Antilia's interiors have rarely been photographed, but ithas a 50-seat cinema and three helipads.
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Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Katy Perry have already serenaded Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in glittering parties that have captured the world's attention.
And the happy couple hasn't even walked down the aisle yet.
That will change this weekend as Mukesh Ambani — India's richest man and father of Anant, the groom — hosts thousands of guests from July 12 to 14 at his youngest son's wedding, the most anticipated nuptials of the year.
Festivities are said to be happening at the Ambani family's custom-built, 27-story tower on Mumbai's most exclusive street, according to CNN. Other rumored venues for wedding events include the Jio World Convention Center, which can accommodate 16,000 people and is owned by the family's company, Reliance Industries.
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Dubbed Antilia, the Ambanis' tower is named for a mythical island off the coast of Europe. Reported to cost $1 billion to build, it has been crowned the "most expensive private residence in the world" by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is rumored to contain three helipads and a 50-seat movie theater — and require a staff of 600 employees.
The interior of the building has rarely been photographed, so Business Insider compiled everything we know about the Ambani family home where parts of the wedding of the year may take place.
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The Ambani family’s opulent pre-wedding festivities have lasted for months.
The pre-wedding festivities for Anant, 29, and Radhika, 29, included a private Rihanna concert and meals prepared by 100 chefs. The young couple both sit on the board of their family's companies, conglomerate Reliance Industries and pharmaceutical giant Encore Healthcare, respectively.
Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding parties hosted tons of high-profile guests.
High-profile guests, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, flocked to Jamnagar, India, in March to toast the marriage of Anant, whose father, Mukesh, is reported to be worth $113 billion.
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Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita have three children.
Isha and Akash are twins, and they're the oldest Ambani children. Anant is their younger brother. It's unclear who lives at Antilia full-time, though the Huffington Post reported that the home required a staff of 600.
Mukesh Ambani is considered India's richest man.
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of the energy, retail, and media conglomerate Reliance Industries and is considered India's richest man. The tower he custom-built sits on Altamount Road, the Billionaires' Row of Mumbai.
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The Ambani family’s Mumbai residence is the most expensive home in the world.
The Ambani family's home is the most expensive private residence in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. (Other rankings put it second, after Buckingham Palace.)
The tower is called Antilia, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean.
The 400,000-square-foot structure is officially 27 stories high, although its many double-height ceilings mean it's closer in height to a traditional 40-story building.
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Antilia reportedly cost $1 billion to build.
The Ambanis' house was constructed between 2006 and 2010, according to Architectural Digest India. At the time, it cost an estimated $1 billion to build, but there's no way of knowing what the tower is worth today.
Inside Antilia, there are nine elevators, a 50-seat cinema, and a full-service spa.
Plus, the tower has a 168-car garage and is equipped with three helipads.
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Antilia opened in February 2010.
In 2011, The New York Times reported Mumbai's elite were speculating that the Ambanis hadn't yet moved into the tower. Antilia didn't align with Hindu architectural philosophy, one expert said.
There's luxury art inside Antilia.
In 2020, Vogue India cataloged some high-end art inside the Ambani house, including work by the modern Indian artist Francis Newton Souza and "Love" sculptor Robert Indiana.
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Antilia was a site of celebration in early 2024.
The Ambani family hosted a light show at Antilia in January 2024 in honor of the historic inauguration of Ram Mandir, a gigantic new temple in the ancient city of Ayodhya.
Holograms of religious sayings adorned the building. Visitors flocked to see the bedazzled tower and get close to one of India's most iconic homes.
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Antilia's opulence has drawn criticism.
In 2011, Ratan Tata, another one of India's richest men, told the Times of India: "It's sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have."
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Antilia is decorated with marigolds and bright yellow lights ahead of the wedding.
Preparations have begun at the tower, according to Reuters, but organizers remain tight-lipped about the details of the exclusive event.
A-listers including Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Nick Jonas, and Priyanka Chopra had already landed in Mumbai by July 11, ahead of the main event, according to Fortune and People.
The particulars of the actual events are still under wraps, but Vanity Fair said the wedding date was chosen based on the couple's astrological charts.
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Locals are already complaining about the traffic the wedding is expected to cause in Mumbai.
Traffic has already slowed down around Antilia and the Jio World Convention Center, Reuters reported.
Mumbai is notorious for traffic congestion and the city is expecting additional slowdowns during the massive event.
Correction: March 7, 2024 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the age of Anant Ambani. He's the youngest son of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, not the eldest. It also misidentified one of the people in a photo from the family's pre-wedding celebrations. It's Paula Hurd, not Melinda French Gates.
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