Video of extravagant cake is from Turkmenistan, not India's Ambani wedding
- Published on July 30, 2024 at 06:59
- 3 min read
- By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka
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"Ambani's wedding is crazy, isn't it? The cake looks like a ship," read a Sinhala-language Facebook post that shared the video on July 16, 2024.
The video, which attracted 3.9 million views, shows waiters unveiling a giant castle-shaped cake that appears to be lit up from inside.
Text overlaid on the video, which was widely shared in similar Facebook posts, said it showed the "Ambani son wedding cake".
Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia's richest man, and Radhika Merchant tied the knot during a lavish three-day Hindu ceremony in Mumbai that began on July 12, with a star-studded guest list including Hollywood celebrities, global business leaders and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pre-wedding parties for the couple included multi-day galas, a European cruise for 1,200 guests, a specially built Hindu temple and entertainment provided by pop stars ranging from Rihanna to Justin Bieber.
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Industries -- India's biggest company by market capitalisation -- and is the world's 11th richest person with a fortune of more than $123 billion, according to Forbes.
Turkmenistan wedding
A reverse image search found a TikTok post which said the video showed a wedding in Turkmenistan (archived link).
The TikTok post was shared on November 1, 2023 -- months before the Ambani wedding in India in July 2024.
An AFP journalist in Turkmenistan confirmed a man in the video was heard speaking in Turkmen to congratulate the bride and groom.
The correspondent also recognised the scene of the video as the luxury Gul Zaman restaurant in the capital Ashgabat (archived here).
The restaurant is tagged in an Instagram post sharing a video of the cake, which appears to show a different wedding at the same venue (archived here).
Furthermore, the footage falsely shared as the Ambani wedding shows a videographer wearing a t-shirt with the logo "ADA", which is a video and production company based in Ashgabat (archived link).
A portrait of Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov can also be seen hanging on the wall.
Below is a screenshot of the portrait seen in the video (left) and on the Turkmen government's website (right) (archived link).
AFP has previously fact-checked misinformation about Anant Ambani's wedding here.
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