3,000-acre garden in the Anant Ambani son of Mukesh Ambani home estate in Jamnagar.
Fittingly, the Anant and Radhika gala has taken place in a 3,000-acre garden in the Ambani home estate in Jamnagar. Only that their “Eden” is laden with the treacly essence of the famously fecund mango orchards — a fitting tribute for the couple’s storied love lore. Rihanna, dressed in a gossamer Arabian nights fantasy costume, has already given the party the frission of Eastern sensuality. American David Blaine was on hand to create the “illusion” of mind-altering headiness. According to reports, guests were given directions to don “jungle fever” outfits for a glitzy cocktail party. There were visits to the Ambanis’ animal rescue centre. But only until 65 chefs made 2,500 palate tantalizing dishes.
But to ensure the presence of more than one social lodestar of our times attends takes more than just famed Ambani amiability and the allure of Indian cultural soft power.
The answer to this lies beyond the ho-hum, and one would daresay, a spot of pop psychology. So let’s turn to a harder reality.
Sometime ago, Mukesh Ambani did what Jamshedji Tata once came close to doing. Ambani succeeded in catapulting the India story to a global platform in an extraordinary strategic shift.
A little over 20 years after Mukesh Ambani took over the Chairmanship of RIL, his tenure is marked by, as Money Control put it, “an unwavering attention year-on-year on creating more and more wealth not just for shareholders but for India, too, in the highest traditions of stakeholder capitalism”.
The global titans (business and political nobility) at the latest Ambani social event are there also to prove their commitment to the burgeoning India story. Who, after all, would surrender an opportunity to catch the Indian consumers’ mind’s eye that no amount of marketing spend could buy.