Born on June 4, 1959, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani built his name in India’s business world. He heads the Reliance Group, also known as the Reliance ADA Group, which came into being in July 2006 after a split from Reliance Industries. Under his leadership, several big firms including Reliance Capital, Infrastructure, Power, and Communications grew and operated across various sectors. Despite facing ups and downs, Anil Ambani personal wealth is still valued at roughly $2 billion as of March 10, 2025.
Anil Ambani, once ranked among the six richest people globally, shocked many when he declared bankruptcy in a UK court in February 2020. Alongside his business career, he also took part in politics for a short time, representing Uttar Pradesh as an Independent Member in India’s Rajya Sabha from 2004 to 2006.
Anil Ambani’s Life Story and Learning Years
Anil Ambani, the youngest member of the Ambani family, is the son of Dhirubhai Ambani, who started Reliance Industries, and his wife Kokilaben. He often shares memories of how his father motivated him and his brother by taking them on long walks of nearly 10 kilometers, rewarding their effort with sweet boxes of mangoes. Yet, alongside this kindness, his father was strict and insisted they maintain good manners in front of visitors. Anil pursued his Bachelor of Science at Kishinchand Chellaram College before moving to the United States to complete his MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1983.
Anil Ambani’s Business Career
When Dhirubhai Ambani passed away in 2002, he didn’t leave a clear plan about who would take charge of the family business. This led to disagreements between Anil Ambani and his older brother Mukesh. Their mother, Kokilaben, stepped in to calm things down and divided the business between the two brothers in a fair way.
Once Anil Ambani took over key parts of the Reliance Group, such as telecom and entertainment, he created a record with Reliance Power’s IPO in 2008. This was the largest public offering in India’s history, and investors bought all the shares in under a minute, making it the fastest IPO ever in the country.
In 2005, Anil Ambani made his way into the entertainment business by buying a big part of Adlabs Films, a company involved in making and showing movies, as well as digital cinema. Four years later, it was renamed Reliance Media Works. Back in 2008, he partnered with Steven Spielberg’s Dream Works in a $1.2 billion deal, expanding his reach worldwide. Anil Ambani played a role in producing several Spielberg films, including the famous Lincoln.
Anil Ambani became known for a rapid loss in shareholder value, with the Reliance ADA Group’s market value dropping almost 90% since it started. This sharp decline made him one of the quickest in recent times to reduce the wealth of investors.
In the beginning of 2019, a Mumbai court found Anil Ambani in criminal contempt because he didn’t pay a debt that Reliance Communications owed to Ericsson, a Swedish company. Since he had personally guaranteed the loan, the court gave him a month to arrange the payment instead of sending him to jail. When the deadline passed, his older brother Mukesh Ambani stepped in and took care of the payment.
In April 2019, three companies from ADAG made a pause agreement with Franklin Templeton after they couldn’t pay back their secured non-convertible debentures (NCDs). This caused SEBI to change the rules for mutual funds, cutting down the allowed investment in unlisted NCDs to 10% and canceling such pause deals. As a result, Franklin Templeton decided not to sell the pledged assets and had to shut six debt funds, which impacted almost 300,000 investors.
Anil Ambani manage a legal battle with three Chinese banks at start of 2020. The court asked him to set aside $100 million during the case, which led him to admit that after factoring in his debts, his net worth was close to zero. The case is still ongoing, and a UK court has ordered him to pay the banks a total of $716 million.
In October 2021, Anil Ambani and his brother Mukesh were named in the Pandora Papers. Then, in January 2023, the Bombay High Court carefully examined the Income Tax Department’s claims of tax evasion after Anil Ambani challenged the notice he received from them.
His Private Life
Anil Ambani belongs to a Gujarati family originally from the village of Chorwad near Junagadh, in the Kathiawar area of Gujarat. He is the youngest son of the famous textile businessman Dhirubhai Ambani and his wife Kokilaben, who is a devoted homemaker and the founder of the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in the suburbs of Mumbai. Anil was raised with his older brother Mukesh and two sisters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaocar.
Anil Ambani is happily married to Tina Munim, who once graced the silver screen as an actress. Although their union initially met resistance from his family because Tina came from the glamour and fashion industry with a different lifestyle, the couple has built a lasting bond. Together, they have two sons Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul. Since 2010, the family has made their home in a 14-story building in Mumbai called The Sea Wind. In early 2022, Jai Anmol celebrated his wedding with Krisha Shah, whose father was the well-known entrepreneur Nikunj Shah from Mumbai.
Anil Ambani does not eat meat and does not drink alcohol. He loves running and often takes part in marathons.
Achievements and Honors of Anil Ambani
In December 1998, Business India, one of the leading business magazines, honored him with the ‘Businessman of the Year 1997’ award in recognition of his impressive accomplishments. Then, in December 2006, a poll by The Times of India TNS once again named him ‘Businessman of the Year,’ showing how much his leadership continued to stand out. That same year, India Today’s Mood of the Nation survey chose him as the ‘Best Role Model’ among business leaders, a clear sign of the admiration he earned in the business community.
He was celebrated as the ‘CEO of the Year 2004’ at the Platts Global Energy Awards, highlighting his remarkable influence in the energy sector. In October 2002, the Bombay Management Association named him ‘Entrepreneur of the Decade,’ recognizing his innovative spirit.
The Wharton India Economic Forum honored him in December 2001 with its inaugural Indian Alumni Award for playing a pivotal role in expanding Reliance’s global footprint. Earlier, in June 1999, Asia week magazine included him among the ‘Leaders of the Millennium,’ marking him as India’s standout ‘new hero’ in business and finance.
Politics and Business, The Allegations
In 2018, the Congress party raised serious questions, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favoring Anil Ambani’s defence company over the government-owned HAL in a massive fighter jet deal with France’s Dassault Aviation. The contract was worth around ₹58,000 crore (roughly ₹780 billion or US$9.2 billion in 2023).
Since many of Ambani’s businesses were already under financial stress, critics claimed this was a clear case of favoritism. Ambani, however, strongly rejected all allegations, calling them baseless. Official details later revealed that Reliance Defence was set to receive just over 3% of Dassault’s ₹30,000 crore (around ₹400 billion or US$4.7 billion) offset deal — much less than what was widely assumed.
At the same time when India and France were discussing the fighter jet deal, another matter came into the spotlight. One of Anil Ambani’s companies had partly funded a French movie in which the partner of former French President François Hollande had acted. The timing of this investment raised questions among people and the media. Many began to wonder if there was any hidden connection between this film funding and the defence deal being worked out.
