Rihanna, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Shah Rukh Khan among stars at Mukesh Ambani son’s extravagant pre-wedding Indian bash

What happens when the son of Asia’s richest man is about to get married?

His father throws a three-day prenuptial bash four months before the actual ceremony.

Tycoons from around the world, heads of state, as well as Hollywood and Bollywood stars on Friday descended on the small Western Indian city of Jamnagar, where billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani is kick-starting a big fat wedding celebration for his youngest son.

The nearly 1,200-person guest list included pop superstar Rihanna; tech leaders Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai; Ivanka Trump; and Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan.

All eyes are on Anant Ambani, 28, and his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant, 29, who will tie the knot in July. Radhika is the daughter of Viren Merchant, CEO of Encore Healthcare, and entrepreneur Shaila Merchant.

Such festivities keep up with the Ambani family’s tradition of lavish and over-the-top parties, while displaying the Indian billionaire’s economic and political clout.

Mukesh Ambani, 66, is currently the world’s 10th richest man with a net worth of US$115 billion, according to Forbes. He is also the richest person in Asia.

His Reliance Industries is a massive conglomerate, reporting over US$100 billion in annual revenue, with interests ranging from petrochemicals, and oil and gas to telecoms and retail.

Under Ambani’s leadership, Reliance – founded by his father in 1966 – sparked a telecoms price war with the launch of the 4G phone and broadband service Jio in 2016.

Today, it has more than 420 million subscribers and offers 5G services. Earlier this week, Disney struck an US$8.5 billion deal to merge its India business with Ambani’s Reliance Industries, forming a new media giant.

The Ambani family owns, among other