RJ held his parents in high regard. In several interviews, he said that it was he who lived with them, and not the other way around. His appreciation of his mother’s cooking was evident when he quipped, “Though Rekha has observed my mother for years, she cannot replicate my mother’s dal. Trading and cooking cannot be taught; they have to be learnt.” RJ was mostly vegetarian and preferred spicy, home-cooked food. He liked Chinese and Italian cuisine too. R Balki, who shared RJ’s dabba at his office, states that the investor was not a big eater. Geoffrey’s at Mumbai’s Nariman Point was his favourite watering hole. RJ’s fondness for whisky and cigarettes proved to be his undoing.
The intimacy RJ and his brother Rajesh shared was evident with the latter supplementing his pocket money and also helping him raise capital to invest. RJ observed, “I have a very special relationship with my elder sister Sudha and her in-laws. I lived in their house. Ashokji [Sudha’s husband] is a very, very close friend of mine. He helped me during my tough times, which I will never forget.” Ashok Gupta revealed that RJ “argued a lot with his father and brother. … [They] agreed to disagree.”
Rekha and RJ’s daughter, Nishtha, was born in June 2004 and their twin sons, Aryaman and Aryavir, in March 2009. Balki observes that the siblings are grounded, which reflects Rekha’s upbringing.
Vishal Gupta quipped, “Every evening, he would pull out a transparent Hello Kitty pouch containing pencils, erasers and sharpener from his Montblanc bag. He’d sharpen the pencils carefully before turning to her books. When I questioned the use of the Hello Kitty pouch, he’d snap, ‘I like it. Don’t touch it!’
“Nishtha confessed, ‘No matter how horrible my grades were or how unhealthy my food was, my dad only cared about my happiness. He said, As long as you’re happy, you can do anything.’ There was a day when my dad tried to teach me mathematics. Let’s just say, I will always struggle with this subject because my dad always did the calculations for me in his head and on the calculator. Even though we didn’t have the same opinion on my career choice and I was quite clueless about my future, my dad was always unbelievably supportive. I loved the arts and he was a stock market genius. Complete opposites, but this difference never interfered with his unconditional love and support for me. My dad was, is and always will be my rock. He will stay with me and support me, wherever I am and whatever I am doing.” As of 2025, Nisha is pursuing an undergraduate degree in media and communications at Regent’s College, London. Aryaman and Aryavir are enrolled in the International Baccalaureate programme at Hillspring International School at Tardeo, Mumbai.
The Jhunjhunwala family moved their residence to the upscale Il Palazzo at Little Gibbs Road, Malabar Hill, Mumbai. Moneycontrol reported that an apartment in Il Palazzo, where RPG group chairman Harsh Goenka lives, was valued at Rs 20 crore in March 2022. RJ wanted to upgrade to a standalone home for his family. He set his sights on Ridgeway Apartments, which was just 500 metres away from Il Palazzo and comprised twelve residential units that HSBC and Standard Chartered had bought to house their senior management. RJ spent Rs 371 crore buying Ridgeway; he purchased six apartments each in 2013 and 2017 for Rs 176 crore and Rs 195 crore, respectively. He demolished the building and began building a 70,000 square foot home spread across 14 storeys. The fourth floor has a banquet hall; a spa and a gym are located on the eighth floor; a large family room and four spacious guest bedrooms are on the tenth floor; and the sea-facing terrace includes a gazebo, a six-seater dining table, a bar, outdoor seating areas and a lawn dotted with trees. RJ used to call Balki from the construction site of his new home to show him the progress. Sadly, he did not live to move into his new home.
RJ’s 50th and 60th birthday bashes attracted extensive media coverage. For his 50th birthday in July 2010, he flew with family and friends in a chartered plane to Mauritius. Guests included Bhaskar Bhat, Kishore Biyani, Tina Ambani and cricketer Ajit Agarkar. Bhaskar Bhat insisted on buying tickets for himself and his wife in a commercial aircraft so that there was no conflict of interest. RJ grudgingly accepted the decision. Exotic dancers greeted the guests at the airport and hotel. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Roop Kumar and Sunali Rathod performed for the guests. There were themed parties, including a casino night. The family put up a skit titled “Pachas Ke Sholay” (Fiery Fifty). Champagne, malt and cigars were available in abundance. Rajesh flew the paanwala chacha (the uncle who made paan) to Mauritus to make the famous Breach Candy paan for the guests.
Even COVID-19 couldn’t dampen the irrepressible investor’s sprits. He organised a grand online Godfather-themed bash.
Dressed up as Marlon Brando – tuxedo, rose et al – he sent out invites that read, “An offer you can’t refuse. You have no choice. No choice at all, my friend. Capisce?” The guests also dressed up, danced and made commemorative speeches. Shankar Mahadevan and Kavita Krishnamurti performed live. So did a DJ set.
RJ was outspoken and, by his own admission, short-tempered, both at home and outside. He admitted that he had lost his temper several times with Rekha, while she may have done so probably twice. Balki once told Rekha, “You deserve a Bharat Ratna for putting up with Rakesh.” Investor Madhusudan Kela, a self-confessed acolyte of RJ, disclosed, “In the competitive world of stock markets, no one wants to share. We used to call him ‘Bhaiyya’ [brother]. I am a beneficiary of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s wisdom. He treated us like his brothers. Bhaiyya was unwell when my mother passed away. He was the first to come and last to go. When I protested, he shot back, ‘Is it possible that I do not come when your mother passes away?’ He allotted Akasa Air shares to me saying, ‘This is going to be very big. Consider this my gift to you.’ He used to scold but he made his point and ensured we did it [what he asked us to do]. He would call later and apologise. People who were close to him never minded his anger.”
Balki agrees, “People did not mind Rakesh’s temper not because he was rich but because they knew he did not mean a lot of the things he said. He would calm down in 15 to 20 minutes.” Kela goes to the extent of saying, “My life may be divided into two phases – before meeting Rakesh bhaiyya and after meeting him.”
Nikunj Dalmia, managing editor of ET Now, describes RJ as “the original folk hero of Indian stock markets”. Dalmia observed, “He is an extraordinary human being. His word is his bond. When I was thinking of migrating from Delhi to Bombay, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala told me three things. Learn to take risks. Think big. You will always have a home in Bombay.”
Integrity was an attribute RJ valued both in the entities he invested in and in people. RJ invested significantly in multiple Tata Group companies, including Titan, Tata Motors, Tata Communications, Rallis and Indian Hotels. The share of Tata Group stocks in his core listed equities portfolio has ranged from 40% to 61% since December 2015. It was not just the earning potential of these stocks that attracted RJ. He asserted, “Tatas are blessed by God. They are my role models in life.”
RJ’s reaction to the uncharacteristically public ouster in 2016 of the Tata Group’s chairman, Cyrus Mistry, reflected his loyalty to the conglomerate. Udayan Mukherjee, Business Today’s global business editor, observed that RJ was enraged when the Tatas and Mistry locked horns. “So you know there was this Cyrus Mistry versus Ratan Tata – a spat going on at that point in its full bloom – and I walked in to find Rakesh talking about Cyrus and the kind of adjectives he was using … He was so angry that if Cyrus had walked into that room, then I feared to think what may have happened. He was so angry,” Mukherjee quipped.
The motto of RaRe Enterprises, “Insight, Intellect, Integrity”, echoes RJ’s beliefs and overlaps with the group’s core values: integrity, responsibility, excellence, pioneering, unity.
The Department of Income Tax has raided RJ’s premises at least a couple of times, and he and Rekha paid SEBI a combined Rs 21.70 crore to settle charges of alleged insider trading of Aptech shares in July 2021. Bhaskar Bhat called RJ after a raid. RJ brushed aside Bhat’s concerns, remarking, “I’m a diamond in a sack of coals.” Sumit Agarwal, a lawyer and founder of Regstreet Law Advisors, represented RJ in the Aptech case. Agarwal reminisced, “He never withheld his words or tone. I distinctly remember an anecdote when he and I were going to SEBI for a meeting. It was related to a matter where SEBI’s way of looking at certain transactions was different than his. After debating with me for long and understanding the pros and cons of certain options, he suddenly said that the regulators are like your spouse. Right or wrong, you should always defer to them to keep harmony. Life is all about perspectives. Let’s settle it and move on.”
RJ often remarked, “When you invest in a small company, you are backing an individual. I don’t mind losing money when an individual fails. [It] emotionally hits me if a person’s character is not good.” He believed he had misjudged the quality and character of the entrepreneurs of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm A2Z Maintenance and Engineering Services (subsequently renamed as A2Z Infra Engineering Limited) and the medical packaging company, Bilcare. RJ confessed, “I had blind faith in both the companies but I have learned from my mistakes.”
Misplaced trust neither dented RJ’s faith in humans nor slowed his lightning-quick decision-making. Amit Goela revealed that he had decided to invest in Akasa Air within 48 hours. Ramesh Damani elucidated RJ’s thought process, “He ran a large business from his briefcase and head. He had figured out most companies in India mentally. So, when an opportunity presents itself, he had already figured the company out and could act quickly.” It took even less time, a few hours, for RJ to foray into film production.
Excerpted with permission from Rare: Investing the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Way, Nandini Vijayaraghavan, Westland.
