Ram temple opening: Ambanis, Bachchan among state guests

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his family as well as Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan are among those who feature in a select state guest list of invitees to the consecration of the Ram temple next week.

While about 8,000 people are in the long list of invitees, the select list features just a few hundred people, including prominent politicians, leading industrialists, top film stars, sportspersons, bureaucrats and diplomats.

According to the list, which PTI has accessed, Bachchan will fly into Ayodhya in a private chartered plane for the opening of the 161-feet tall pink sandstone shrine.

From the film industry, the list features actors Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Allu Arjun, Mohanlal, Anupam Kher and Chiranjeevi. Besides, sarod maestro Amjad Ali, lyricist and poet Manoj Muntashir and his wife, lyricist and writer Prasoon Joshi, and directors Sanjay Bhansali and Chandraprakash Dwivedi are invited too.

Also on the list are billionaire Mukesh Ambani, his mother Kokilaben, wife Neeta, sons Akash and Anant, daughter-in-law Shloka and would-be-daughter-in-law Radhika Merchant.

Other prominent industrialists invited include Aditya Birla Group chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla and his wife Nirja, Piramal Group chairperson Ajay Piramal, Mahindra and Mahindra's Anand Mahindra and DCM Shriram's Ajay Shriram and TCS CEO K Krithivasan.

K Satish Reddy of Dr Reddy's Pharmaceuticals, Zee Entertainment Enterprises CEO Punit Goenka, L&T CEO S N Subrahmanyan and his wife, Durali Divi of Divis Laboratories, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy, Jindal Steel & Power head Naveen Jindal and Naresh Trehan of Medanta Group are there as well.

Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia are also on the list.

India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, former diplomat Amar Sinha, former attorney generals K K Venugopal and Mukul Rohtagi, and Indian women cricket captain Mitali Raj are among others finding mention on the list.

While some on the list are flying in private jets on January 22, others are taking regular flights to reach a day earlier and staying overnight either in Ayodhya or nearby cities like Lucknow.