Amitabh Jhunjhunwala: Journey from a CA to Anil Ambani's top man
MUMBAI: It's not just blind loyalty that keeps Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Anil Ambani together. Those who have seen the duo working together for years say it is a similar bent of mind that is responsible for the near-perfect fit. "There's nothing profound about his decision to follow Anil when the latter left Reliance Industries. Had he been an engineer, he would perhaps have continued with Mukesh," says a senior executive at the ADAG group.
The two met for the first time in the early 80s when Jhunjhunwala, as cofounder of a CA firm, visited Reliance, one of his clients. Ambani was then in charge of finance. Ambani was impressed and, by 1993, persuaded the young CA to join a fund house brotherin-law Shyam Kothari had founded called Kothari Pioneer.
A year and a half later, he came in as CEO of the newly-floated Reliance Capital, which started as a fund house and over the years transformed into a supermarket for financial services. Interestingly, Jhunjhunwala had co-founded the CA firm with Akhil Gupta, who is today to Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal what Jhunjhunwala is to Anil. Along with finance, the two share a passion for the entertainment business.
That explains Anil's determination to get a foot into the door of Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, the iconic Hollywood studio. Since that JV got underway , Jhunjhunwala has been closely involved with it; those working with him recall how he got misty-eyed when the studio received a letter from Neil Armstrong for the good restoration work of NASA's film on the first man stepping into the Moon.
Yet, on many fronts, they're as different as cheese is from chalk. Whilst the professional keeps a cool head, the promoter is known to be excitable ; Jhunjhunwala is a light eater, the latter loves food; the former shies away from the limelight-he refused to comment to ET for this feature -- the chairman has thrived in it. Those who work around the duo point out that Ambani has played to Jhunjhunwala's strengths and accordingly given him responsibilities.
For instance, his passion for human capital convinced the promoter to put him at the helm of businesses like media and entertainment and financial services. That gambit has worked at Reliance Capital, which with Jhunjhunwala as CEO diversified into life and general insurance; he also took Reliance MF to the top of the fund house sweepstakes. He built the entertainment business from scratch: the group acquired Adlabs in 2005.
Now it's into radio, multiplex and film production. The creative and artistic bent may be courtesy of his mother, says a close friend of Jhunjhunwala, who was a journalist of repute, a Padma Shri awardee and an organiser of Kavi Sammelans at their Delhi residence. In fact, Jhunjhunwala even published a finance magazine called Money Matters for a year before he joined Kothari Pioneer.
People who work with him at the entertainment venture say Jhunjhunwala looks forward to meeting Spielberg -- they meet least once a quarter -- and relishes the opportunity of meeting Hollywood stars who feature in DreamWorks' movies. Back home, however, the realities for the group are not all rosy. For starters, the combine has to find a way to reduce the mounting debt at Reliance Communications ; at last count it stood at Rs 39,000 crore, Rs 10,000 crore more than its top line and two times its market value.
MUMBAI: It's not just blind loyalty that keeps Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Anil Ambani together. Those who have seen the duo working together for years say it is a similar bent of mind that is responsible for the near-perfect fit. "There's nothing profound about his decision to follow Anil when the latter left Reliance Industries. Had he been an engineer, he would perhaps have continued with Mukesh," says a senior executive at the ADAG group.
The two met for the first time in the early 80s when Jhunjhunwala, as cofounder of a CA firm, visited Reliance, one of his clients. Ambani was then in charge of finance. Ambani was impressed and, by 1993, persuaded the young CA to join a fund house brotherin-law Shyam Kothari had founded called Kothari Pioneer.
A year and a half later, he came in as CEO of the newly-floated Reliance Capital, which started as a fund house and over the years transformed into a supermarket for financial services. Interestingly, Jhunjhunwala had co-founded the CA firm with Akhil Gupta, who is today to Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal what Jhunjhunwala is to Anil. Along with finance, the two share a passion for the entertainment business.
That explains Anil's determination to get a foot into the door of Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, the iconic Hollywood studio. Since that JV got underway , Jhunjhunwala has been closely involved with it; those working with him recall how he got misty-eyed when the studio received a letter from Neil Armstrong for the good restoration work of NASA's film on the first man stepping into the Moon.
Yet, on many fronts, they're as different as cheese is from chalk. Whilst the professional keeps a cool head, the promoter is known to be excitable ; Jhunjhunwala is a light eater, the latter loves food; the former shies away from the limelight-he refused to comment to ET for this feature -- the chairman has thrived in it. Those who work around the duo point out that Ambani has played to Jhunjhunwala's strengths and accordingly given him responsibilities.
For instance, his passion for human capital convinced the promoter to put him at the helm of businesses like media and entertainment and financial services. That gambit has worked at Reliance Capital, which with Jhunjhunwala as CEO diversified into life and general insurance; he also took Reliance MF to the top of the fund house sweepstakes. He built the entertainment business from scratch: the group acquired Adlabs in 2005.
Now it's into radio, multiplex and film production. The creative and artistic bent may be courtesy of his mother, says a close friend of Jhunjhunwala, who was a journalist of repute, a Padma Shri awardee and an organiser of Kavi Sammelans at their Delhi residence. In fact, Jhunjhunwala even published a finance magazine called Money Matters for a year before he joined Kothari Pioneer.
People who work with him at the entertainment venture say Jhunjhunwala looks forward to meeting Spielberg -- they meet least once a quarter -- and relishes the opportunity of meeting Hollywood stars who feature in DreamWorks' movies. Back home, however, the realities for the group are not all rosy. For starters, the combine has to find a way to reduce the mounting debt at Reliance Communications ; at last count it stood at Rs 39,000 crore, Rs 10,000 crore more than its top line and two times its market value.
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