Seasons in the sun: A peek into the photo albums of India's billionaires
We delve inside the albums of some of india’s billionaires for a whiff of nostalgia and a sense of history
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Radhe Shyam Goenka, Co-founder & Wholetime Director, Emami
Net worth: $1.56 bLN 2016 Forbes India Rich List RANK #84
It was a mix of work and pleasure that took the co-founders of Indian FMCG major Emami to Tokyo in 1978. While Agarwal (right) and Goenka are seen holidaying with their wives (Usha Agarwal and Saroj Goenka) in the Japanese capital, the billionaire entrepreneurs were also attending a trade show on food machinery and technology to gain an in-depth understanding of the latest technologies in the food space, a business they later ventured into.
Back from Tokyo, Agarwal and Goenka forayed into the packaged food segment with the brand Wah, which mostly sold rice-based products. They even bought food-processing and packaging machines from Tokyo, and set up a factory in Rajasthan in 1980. However, they decided to shut down the business in the early ’80s. “We did a lot of innovation in terms of the product and packaging at that time, but I think the market was not ready for such a product, which was priced a little higher than the usual potato chips. Unlike today, consumer awareness was also low. Though our initial launch was good, we couldn’t keep up the momentum and the manufacturing cost was too high,” says Agarwal.
—Debojyoti Ghosh
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Net worth: $12.4 bLN 2016 Forbes India Rich List RANK #7
This photograph of adi godrej was taken sometime during the late 1970s, and is symbolic of what the 119-year-old group and its chairman stand for—endurance and sustainability. In the photograph, Godrej, now 74 years old, is standing next to a manufacturing line of Cinthol soaps, one of the iconic products made by the consumer goods-to-real estate conglomerate. Cinthol, which was launched in 1952, is still available in the red packaging in which it was first sold.
A few other things have, however, changed for the group: The factory in which the photo was taken, located in Mumbai’s eastern suburb of Vikhroli, does not exist any longer. It has been replaced by a swanky glass-and-steel building that serves as the group’s headquarters.
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Net worth: $3.64 bLN 2016 Forbes India Rich List Rank #30
this photograph shows harsh mariwala at Marico’s factory in Sewri, Mumbai, in the early ’80s, distributing home utility products like water containers, utensils and plates, among his 100-odd workers during a Satyanarayan Puja. This was the factory where Parachute, one of Marico’s flagship brands, was being manufactured and packaged. Apart from being an important day for the staff, these events have always been close to Mariwala. “Besides the auspicious occasion, such interactions have always been special, for both the company and the workforce,” he says. Marico continues to celebrate its annual day every year.
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Net worth: $3.7 bLN 2016 Forbes India Rich List Rank #28
In the summer of 1990, the year before he bought Berger Paints from Vijay Mallya, Kuldip Singh Dhingra meticulously planned his daughters’ first US visit. Youngest daughter Dipti (left) had just turned 10 and this meant she’d at last be able to get past the height restrictions at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Eldest Rishma, standing next to her father, remembers an action packed and fun-filled week. (Mother Meeta Dhingra and sister Jessima are also seen in this picture.) The family stayed at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, and visited a park a day—Walt Disney World and its parks Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, apart from SeaWorld and Wet ’n Wild. “It was such a treat. Sitting in India we could never have imagined this,” says Rishma. Also on the agenda was a quick trip to New York. A visit to Walt Disney World is on its way to becoming a family tradition. Rishma has taken her daughters there and Jessima has already planned her family visit. Both were unanimous on their choice of hotel—Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress.
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Gurbachan Singh Dhingra, Chairman, Berger paints
Younger brother Gurbachan Singh Dhingra with wife Vinu at Chagrin Falls in Ohio in 1987.
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