Katy Perry to perform at second pre-wedding celebration of Mukesh Ambani’s son

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Katy Perry is reportedly set to perform at the second pre-wedding celebration of the youngest son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.

Anant Ambani, 28, will marry his childhood sweetheart Radhika Merchant, 29, on 12 July, but wedding celebrations kicked off months ago with a three-day gala event held in the Ambani hometown in March.

The second pre-wedding event got underway on a luxury cruise on 29 May.

The invitation to the cruise says that the theme is La Vite E Un Viaggio, meaning life is a journey, and promises guests “an adventure of a lifetime” on the four-day cruise, which set off for a 4,380km voyage from Palermo in Italy to the South of France and back.

The Roar singer is likely to perform for Ambani’s guests at the masquerade ball in Cannes on Friday, according to a report in The Sun.

Around 800 guests have been invited on the cruise, including the who’s who of Bollywood and Indian sport as well as tycoons and entrepreneurs.

The first pre-wedding bash in Jamnagar, in the western state of Gujarat, saw pop star Rihanna perform for the couple. According to a report by the Daily Mail, the singer was paid £5 million for the set. The festivities, which included Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Ivanka Trump, cost around $150m (£118m).

The Sun reported that the masquerade ball in Cannes will be held at a £40m estate, and Perry will headline. A DJ is also being flown in for entertainment, and guests will then be treated to a fireworks display in the Bay of Cannes.

While a strict no-cell phones policy means not much information is trickling out, a video of the US boy band Backstreet Boys performing did the rounds on social media on Thursday.

Mukesh Ambani, head of the Reliance business empire, is Asia’s richest man, competing closely with fellow Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, chair of the Adani Group of companies, according to the billionaires list compiled by Forbes.

Merchant’s family has business interests in pharmaceuticals.

The Ambani family, with an estimated net worth of $113bn (£89.53bn), according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, runs India’s top conglomerates in all sectors from petroleum refining and marketing to organised retail to telecommunication and digital streaming services.