$1 Billion Home in India Empty Because of Superstition
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The 27-story Antilla is seen in Mumbai. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)
India’s richest man is enjoying his 27-story Mumbai home, from afar. The world’s most expensive home, which cost $1 billion to build, is reportedly empty because the owner believes it would be bad luck to move in, according to the Daily Mail.
The building towers above the city and boasts three helicopter landing pads, floating gardens, six car parks, a theater and a grand ballroom.
The building’s purported problem is that it lacks the correct vastu shastra, a Hindu equivalent of feng shui, according to the Daily Mail. The architectural doctrine emphasizes the importance of facing the sunrise and the home reportedly does not have enough windows on the east side, which could cause bad luck.
Its owner, Mukesh Ambani, 53, was ranked by Forbes as the ninth richest man in the world. His fortune is valued at $27 billion. Forbes called his petrochemical company, Reliance Industries, “India’s most valuable company.”
The home is called Antilla and was completed last year amid controversy because it was criticized as an ostentatious show of wealth in a largely poverty-stricken country.
The family are reportedly living with their extended family in a more modest 14-story home elsewhere in the city.
A spokesman for Ambani’s company would not comment on Ambani’s reluctance to move his family into the home, according to the Daily Mail.
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The bigger issue is that no one in their right mind would trust the structural integrity of a 27 story building built by Indian labor in India.
Posted by: Tyrone | October 26, 2011, 11:11 am 11:11 am
To TYRONE : U know the reason why America is facing unemployemnt and all other problems? Because its residents are using less and less brains by each coming day…there are hundreds and thousands of buildings in india much taller than 27 stories high and they are all happily standing..so grow up.
Also, for the one who wrote this article – The house did not cost 1billion dollar to build..the cost was much much lower than that..its the real estate price of the home which is estimated at 1 billion dollar.
Posted by: balex | October 26, 2011, 11:19 am 11:19 am
how about allocating each room to the thousands of those homeless in the slum areas?
Posted by: radha rai | October 26, 2011, 11:22 am 11:22 am
Just goes to show that you don’t have to be smart to be rich because this is one dumb billionaire….
Posted by: WorkingClass | October 26, 2011, 11:24 am 11:24 am
balex —
Unemployment in America is a combination of many factors, but what you mentioned was not one of them.
To address you claim, the presumption is the other buildings are structurally sound, and as they have been built also by Indian labor, that is certainly not clear.
Regardless, a country as steeped in superstition and that treats women the way India does should not talk about the intelligence of its people.
Posted by: koza dereza | October 26, 2011, 11:39 am 11:39 am
Tyrone – Do you believe that buildings built in India or China or Africa are somehow inferior to the one’s built in the United States?
The walls of our buildings in the US are paper thin. The walls of buildings in India and China and many other places around the world are strong and thick.
Indian Labor works arguably much harder and for a much smaller wage than American Laborers.
Posted by: Max | October 26, 2011, 11:42 am 11:42 am
And just to add Tyrone & workingclass….
You clearly have never been to India or China or experienced any other culture different from your own. You live in your own world in your own box and eat fat fried fast foods never trying something else and you are unaware that some cultures do have superstitions like this which are a big deal to them. The Italians are superstitious too. Try to open your mind a little bit. It’ll do wonders for you.
tyrone – you know that The Indians and Chinese can build entire huge cities in less than 20 years. They can build a 14 story building in a few months (structurally sound and fit) Here in the US it takes them 20 years to complete 1 big building… it takes years just to build a single home.
Posted by: Max | October 26, 2011, 11:48 am 11:48 am
The logic of superstitions (aka, relgion) never ceases to amaze. Talk about using less of your brain, how much less of your brain do you need to use to believe your home will have bad luck because there are not enough east-facing windows.
Posted by: Jim | October 26, 2011, 12:06 pm 12:06 pm
Look at the bright side. hundreds of jobs were created for this project. I think abani should turn it into a hotel/ high rise condo.
Posted by: arun | October 26, 2011, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
The home is worthless if no one will live in it. Built in an area that believes you need windows to face the east, owner won’t live in it, and probalby will have a hard time selling it, so a value can not really be applied to the home. What a waste.
Posted by: Donna | October 26, 2011, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
@Tyrone, Koza and similar people: Some great person said “It is better to be silent and thought a fool, rather than speak out and remove all doubt”. You guys belong to the latter group. The products of Indian labor since history have been top notch, examples such as civilization’s first sewage system in the Indus valley, Taj mahal etc etc. You have no freaking clue on the stuff you speak. Please keep all your mouths shut and preserve some dignity. Cheerio!
Posted by: RahulS | October 26, 2011, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
Can’t they just add a few more windows or will the god of vastu shastra know that is just a ploy to get good luck?
Posted by: Jim | October 26, 2011, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
Sounds like bad planning to me.
Posted by: SisMarCat | October 26, 2011, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
@Max: Wow, judge people much? You don’t know where I’ve been or what I believe. But, I do know this billionaire is an idiot and he’s how I know this. He’s spent a billion dollars on a house (first dumb move) that he won’t live in because it’s bad luck (second dumb move). It has nothing to do with his beliefs. If he believes all that nonsense, then why didn’t he have more windows put in when the building was being designed (third dumb move).
Posted by: WorkingClass | October 26, 2011, 12:47 pm 12:47 pm
Did the owner not approve the design before the house was built? He didn’t notice this “flaw” during construction? Guess he was either too busy, too arrogant or too stupid to notice before completion.
Posted by: NoSpin1600 | October 26, 2011, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
Theres a whole lot of poor starving people in India……. how sad
Posted by: Brandy | October 26, 2011, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
Talk about a waste of money. If the guy knew from the start building such a home would be ‘cursed’, why bother to build it like that to begin with? Talk about stupidity.
Posted by: GWP | October 26, 2011, 1:12 pm 1:12 pm
To Working Class : This billionaire is no fool..he is not a billionaire by accident..granted he inherited a large part from his father but he also improved on his own merit.
Oh for western folks it might sound superstitious whatever indians do, but it looks very logical to me. Life gets very meaningful if you can get up on time and go to bed on time and see the sun in the morning..so if there are no proportionate number of windows to the east, that might not happen..so to me it sounds very logical what he did..but why he did not think of it earlier is a different story. Probably because the home is so big with a lot of security features and complicated design, maybe they did not estimate properly..possible (the designers were westerners you know) or he is just taking advantage of building home and not staying for some tax purposes..what and how exactly i do not know..a cpa would know..but clearly he is not a dumb fellow.
Posted by: balex | October 26, 2011, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
NOSPIN1600 – THAT is exactly what I was thinking!! Didn’t he consult an expert in this before going ahead?
Posted by: pksk531 | October 26, 2011, 1:20 pm 1:20 pm
White Nationalists make me laugh. Their race got ahead in the last 200 years and they act real cocky because of it. I guess if you are in a slow sinking ship, you might as well trash talk while you can.
Posted by: BigOil | October 26, 2011, 1:32 pm 1:32 pm
give me the keys
Posted by: big b | October 26, 2011, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Here come the judges!! For Tyrone, a few houses have indeed been built structurally unsound, but these are poorly designed, 4 or 5 story houses that break down — not multimillion dollar complexes which do involve high quality design and implementation. Money talks, and more money buys better quality. There is undoubtedly corruption in India, but seeing it everywhere is grossly oversimplifying. Koza, not sure what your opinion is about women in India. Sure, there’s a lot of exploitation among the poor and the destitute (and this happens worldwide!!!), but the day you get a woman President you’ll be one to talk. FYI, India has had a very powerful woman prime minister almost three decades ago, Indira Gandhi, and the current president of India is also a woman, Pratibha Patil. But if bashing other countries on this virtual space makes your day feel good, I sympathize.
Posted by: badcafe | October 26, 2011, 2:17 pm 2:17 pm
Mr.Ambani’s acquired wealth is at best thought to be due to manipulative behavior. My father in law had seen his father sell soap (?) on a bicycle! The Ambani brothers are smart. They have successfully bribed and muscled their way with the successive goverments, customs and other officials.
Only yesterday a scathing report from a anlyst has indicated how they have inflated the assets. The 2G scam investigator judge has implicated Reliance using a front to get lucrative Delhi sector
conarct.
“what goes around comes around”. The Ambani brothers sun is now slowly going for the sunset. The steel “monstrosity” will remain same, unused and non usable. Billion dollars worth of junk! I suppose he could get something back by donating to to a charitable organization!
Posted by: shailesh | October 26, 2011, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
Well, alrighty then…..
Posted by: Thoughtyouknew | October 26, 2011, 2:39 pm 2:39 pm
Real all these comments are very intresting some make sense others are dripping with ignorance, and i especially love that quote about “removing all doubt”…. and your all responding to some name TYRONE wth TYRONE really..who is so intellegent that he must have gone to school in a cave and has never seen remarkable and beautiful Taj Mahal in Agra India, which btw TYRONE is older than the country you shame with your racist and backward comment which FYI it is approx. 350 years old and still there, and never heard of the great wall of China is almost 2000 years old and still staniding,all these sub standard builders what were they thinkng…all you others A..holes whom but into the idea that all but the United States has standards are just plain dumb…but one thing i must say about these type of comment you certainly have “removed all doubt”…..LOL so redneck-culous…
Posted by: Cecilia Ouevedo | October 26, 2011, 3:26 pm 3:26 pm
Spend 1 billion on a home and not live in it, but admire it from afar. WTF, is up with that? Besides, it’s dog ass ugly anyway…HaHa!
Posted by: Dudly | October 26, 2011, 3:30 pm 3:30 pm
the building looks ugly
not worth 1 million dollar
Posted by: vijay | October 26, 2011, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
It doesn’t matter how strong that house it, the owner is an idiot. Too many people could have benefited from the wasted money he spent. Was he guaranteed a hundred virgins when he dies? Stupid man.
Posted by: LEE | October 26, 2011, 4:18 pm 4:18 pm
I’d be willing to live in for him (for a few years) just to show the him that there nothing to be afraid of! LOL!
Posted by: RG | October 26, 2011, 4:22 pm 4:22 pm
LEE: You people are full on determined to prove your ignorance today. Mukesh Ambani is a Hindu. So no virgins. Stupid man. And way to go US educational system.
Posted by: JOE HILL | October 26, 2011, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm
I don’t think he wants to live in this building because it may be one of the ugliest buildings ever built! Seriously. But its not clear from the article if no one is living there. Maybe it’s been subdivided and there are tenants?
Incidentally, does anyone offer a RATIONAL opinion on why it was properly situated and built with sufficient windows in the first instance?
Thanks
Posted by: ron | October 26, 2011, 6:38 pm 6:38 pm
Maybe for a billion more they can add some more windows on the east side?
Posted by: Denese | October 26, 2011, 7:37 pm 7:37 pm
No, this definitely doesn’t seem smart — but there are plenty of highly intelligent Indians. Some have the best skilled technical jobs that many Americans couldn’t do. AND — they are usually professional, friendly and cordial to boot. That said, at least they could show some interior pictures!
Posted by: Rybo | October 26, 2011, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
This is why having too much money is sick and wrong!
Posted by: cesf | October 26, 2011, 9:10 pm 9:10 pm
Should just try to convert it to some sort of useful building such as a museum or municipal building or possibly subdivide it… if it’s not being used it’s just a total waste, although I suspect it most certainly already is.
Posted by: sebby23 | October 26, 2011, 9:18 pm 9:18 pm
Haters hating. He’s got the money. He’ll spend it. Live with it. ZZZZ….
Posted by: James | October 26, 2011, 9:42 pm 9:42 pm
MICHAEL: People IN glass houses, not people WITH glass houses. Plus using both classes and sessions like that is tautology. Other than that not too bad. But still way to go US educational system.
Posted by: JOE HILL | October 26, 2011, 9:44 pm 9:44 pm
I believe they are using it during the day, they just won’t stay there overnight. Not that that makes it much better.
Posted by: JOE HILL | October 26, 2011, 9:46 pm 9:46 pm
The walls of our buildings in the US are paper thin. The walls of buildings in India and China and
many other places around the world are strong and thick. Indian Labor works arguably much
harder and for a much smaller wage than American Laborers. POSTED BY: MAX |*************The
reason the structures are thicker is because it is mainly composed of stone, not wood. If there
were an earthquake, these structures would be the first to collapse. Building with stone using
near slave labor is a no brainer. The main reason foreigner seem to look like they work
harder is because they are brutally force to work faster. If they don’t , there are hundreds of
starving people waiting in line to replace them. Sad but true.
Posted by: michael | October 26, 2011, 10:27 pm 10:27 pm
MICHAEL: Have you ever left the US? Visited one of those countries that starving, slave labour foreigners live in? The answer is so obviously no. I’d bet you don’t even hold a passport. This building is way too high to be made from stone or brick, it’s a steel frame with curtain walls. Travel broadens the mind and you really need some of that. Sad but true.
Posted by: JOE HILL | October 27, 2011, 5:20 am 5:20 am
He paid to have the home built, is superstitious, and didn’t look at the plans closely enough to see that it wasn’t being built with enough east windows? Seriously?!?!? If I ever have the money to have my dream home built, you can bet that the plans will be scrutinize very closely BEFORE it’s built. STUPID! Definitely needs to be donated and used somehow. If there was controversy about it being a show of wealth, and you’re not going to live in it, turn it to good. Sounds like a great opportunity for good will.
Posted by: J | October 27, 2011, 10:23 am 10:23 am