Rakesh Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala (5 July 1960 – 14 August 2022) was an Indian stock market investor and trader, the most famous of his generation. Starting with 5,000 rupees in 1985, he built a fortune estimated at about 5.8 billion US dollars at his death. He was known as the Big Bull of Dalal Street and India’s Warren Buffett, and his cheerful faith in the Indian economy made him a public figure.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Rakesh Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala |
| Born | 5 July 1960, Hyderabad |
| Died | 14 August 2022, Mumbai (aged 62) |
| Education | Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai; chartered accountant |
| Occupation | Investor, trader |
| Firm | Rare Enterprises |
| Known for | Investments in Titan, CRISIL, Lupin and Star Health; co-founder of Akasa Air |
| Awards | Padma Shri (2023, posthumous) |
| Spouse | Rekha Jhunjhunwala (m. 1987) |
| Children | 3 |
Early Life
He was born into a Marwari family from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and grew up in Mumbai, where his father was an officer of the Income Tax department. As a boy he listened to his father and his friends discussing shares and asked why prices went up and down. His father told him to read the newspapers, since it was news that moved the market.
He graduated from Sydenham College and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1985. When he announced that he wished to go into the stock market, his father said he might do so but must not ask him or his friends for money.
Career
Beginnings
He began in 1985 with 5,000 rupees, when the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex index stood at about 150. He borrowed from acquaintances at high rates of interest. His first large profit came in 1986 on shares of Tata Tea, bought at 43 rupees and sold within three months at 143. Gains on the mining company Sesa Goa followed.
The investor
He traded actively on borrowed money and used the profits to buy shares to hold for many years. His firm, Rare Enterprises, took its name from the first letters of his own and his wife’s names.
- **Titan:** he began buying the watch and jewellery maker in 2002–03 at a few rupees a share and held on as it multiplied many hundreds of times; it was the foundation of his wealth
- **CRISIL**, the credit rating agency, and **Lupin**, the drug maker
- **Star Health**, the insurer, **Metro Brands** and **Nazara Technologies**, in which he invested before they were listed
- banks, Tata Motors and Indian Hotels
He made heavy losses too, and spoke of them openly. His rule was that the market, like the weather and death, could not be predicted, and that one should respect it.
Controversy
The market regulator investigated him for alleged insider trading in the shares of Aptech, an education company he controlled. In 2021 he and others settled the case by paying about 37 crore rupees, without admitting or denying the charge.
Akasa Air
In 2021 he backed a new low-cost airline, Akasa Air, with the aviation executive Vinay Dube. Asked why he was entering an industry in which so many had failed, he said he was prepared for failure. Its first flight took off on 7 August 2022. He attended the launch in a wheelchair.
Films
He produced several Hindi films, among them English Vinglish (2012).
Death
He had suffered for years from diabetes and kidney disease. He died in Mumbai on 14 August 2022, a week after the airline’s first flight. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, called him indomitable.
Personal Life
He married Rekha, also from a Marwari business family, in 1987. They had a daughter, Nishtha, and twin sons, Aryaman and Aryaveer. He was a large, talkative man who loved food, cigars and Bollywood. He had pledged a quarter of his wealth to charity, with a particular interest in eye care, and was building an eye hospital near Mumbai.
Featured image: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, in a photograph released with his Padma Shri citation. Photo by PIB Mumbai, Government of India, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
