Dhirubhai Ambani: Biography of the Founder of Reliance

Childhood in Chorwad

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, known throughout his life as Dhirubhai, was born on 28 December 1932 in Chorwad, a village in the Junagadh area of present-day Gujarat. He was the second son of Hirachand Gordhanbhai Ambani, a village schoolteacher, and his wife Jamnaben, and Britannica describes him as the third of five children. The family's means were modest, and Reliance's own short biography of its founder notes that hardship forced him to leave school early.

That background became central to the way he was later seen in India. Dhirubhai had no inherited capital, no family business and no elite education. His success was frequently presented, by admirers and by the company he built, as proof that an ordinary Indian could build a giant enterprise.

Parents and education

Dhirubhai's father, Hirachand Gordhanbhai Ambani, was a poorly paid village schoolteacher, and his mother, Jamnaben, managed a large household on very little money. As a boy he sold snacks to pilgrims at the Girnar hills near Junagadh to earn extra income. He studied at Bahadur Khanji School in Junagadh and completed his matriculation, but family finances ruled out college; in 1949 he followed his elder brother, Ramniklal, to Aden. He later received honours from business schools, including the Wharton School's Dean's Medal in 1998, despite having no university degree.

Aden: an education in trade

In 1949, at about 17, he went to Aden, then a British colony and now part of Yemen, to join his elder brother. He worked as a dispatch clerk for A. Besse & Co., which Britannica describes as the largest transcontinental trading firm east of Suez at the time. According to Reliance's biography, the firm later became a distributor for Shell products, and Dhirubhai was put in charge of an oil-filling station at Aden's port. The company says it was there that he first dreamed of owning a refinery.

The years in Aden taught him trading, accounting and the workings of international commerce. In 1955 he married Kokila Patel, who would become widely known as Kokilaben Ambani.

Reliance Commercial Corporation

Dhirubhai returned to India in 1958 and settled in Bombay. With his second cousin Champaklal Damani he started a trading business, Reliance Commercial Corporation, dealing at first in spices and then in other commodities. Its first office, at Narsinatha Street in Masjid Bunder, was a single small room with a telephone, a table and three chairs. The family lived in a two-bedroom flat at Jai Hind Estate in Bhuleshwar.

In the early 1960s he moved into yarn trading, especially polyester yarn, which was in short supply and heavily regulated. His strategy, Britannica notes, was to offer better-quality goods while accepting smaller margins than competitors. In 1965 the partnership with Damani ended, reportedly because the two men had different temperaments and approaches to business, and Dhirubhai went on alone.

Naroda and "Only Vimal"

In 1966 he took the step that turned Reliance from a trader into a manufacturer. He bought land in the Naroda industrial area near Ahmedabad and set up a textile mill, and the company was renamed Reliance Textile Industries. The mill began with imported warp-knitting machines and a processing house, and steadily expanded. The fabric was branded Vimal, after his nephew Vimal Ambani.

Wholesalers were at first reluctant to stock the new, relatively expensive brand. Reliance responded by selling directly to retailers and later through its own outlets. After 1977 an advertising campaign built around the slogan "Only Vimal" made the brand a household name. In 1975, according to Reliance, a World Bank technical team described the Naroda mill as excellent even by developed-country standards.

Taking Reliance public

In 1977 Reliance went public. Britannica notes that he turned to the stock market after nationalised banks declined to finance him. At the time, share ownership in India was confined to a small elite. Dhirubhai persuaded large numbers of middle-class investors to buy shares in a relatively unknown company, and Reliance's steady growth and generous rewards to shareholders made him a hero to small investors. Reliance annual general meetings became public spectacles held in sports grounds; the company says its 1986 meeting at the Cross Maidan in Mumbai was attended by around 30,000 shareholders.

Backward integration

Dhirubhai's long-term strategy was backward integration: making each input that his businesses needed. In the early 1980s Reliance commissioned the Patalganga plant to make polyester filament yarn and polyester staple fibre. In 1991 it set up a petrochemicals complex at Hazira in Gujarat. The final step was a large crude oil refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat, which Reliance commissioned in 1999 and described as the world's largest grassroots refinery at the time. The chain now ran from crude oil to petrochemicals, polyester and finished fabric.

Reliance timeline

Net worth

CareerMasti has not used a personal net-worth figure for Dhirubhai Ambani. Contemporary rankings measured the family's holdings in Reliance rather than his personal wealth, and figures quoted online for him are generally unsourced or mix up his wealth with that of his sons.

Controversy

Reliance's rapid rise in a heavily controlled economy also attracted serious criticism. Dhirubhai faced accusations of manipulating government policy, market manipulation and favourable treatment, and he fought bitter public battles with rivals and sections of the press. Britannica records that, despite such allegations, investor confidence in Reliance remained largely unshaken. An unauthorised biography, The Polyester Prince by Hamish McDonald, was not published in India after the family threatened legal action. Mani Ratnam's 2007 film Guru was widely seen as inspired by his life, though the director denied it was a biography.

Illness, succession and death

In February 1986 Dhirubhai suffered a stroke that paralysed his right hand. He handed over day-to-day management of Reliance to his sons, Mukesh and Anil, while continuing to guide the company. On 24 June 2002 he suffered a second, major stroke and was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. He died on 6 July 2002, aged 69.

After his death a dispute between his sons led Kokilaben Ambani to divide the group: Mukesh took charge of Reliance Industries, with its oil, gas and petrochemicals businesses, and Anil took telecommunications, power and financial services.

Family

Dhirubhai and Kokilaben had four children: Mukesh, Anil, Nina and Dipti. Mukesh Ambani remains chairman of Reliance Industries.

Wife and children

Dhirubhai married Kokilaben Patel in 1955; she outlived him and remained the family's matriarch. They had two sons and two daughters. Mukesh Ambani, the elder son, chairs Reliance Industries and has been India's richest person for most of the past two decades; Anil Ambani led the Reliance ADA Group after the family's businesses were divided between the brothers in 2005. Their daughters are Nina Kothari, who has been involved in businesses in Chennai and Mumbai, and Dipti Salgaocar, who married into a Goa mining family.

Honours

In 1998 the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania awarded him its Dean's Medal, the first Indian to receive it. India Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour in 2002, and in 2016 he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour.

Legacy

Dhirubhai Ambani's legacy is complex. Admirers credit him with introducing the stock market to ordinary Indians and showing that Indian companies could build world-scale industrial plants. Critics point to his skill at working an opaque system of licences and influence. Few dispute that the company he founded in a single rented room became one of the largest businesses in India, and that his life became one of the country's most powerful stories of enterprise.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Dhirubhai Ambani
2. Reliance Group: short biography of Dhirubhai Ambani (PDF)
3. Jio Institute exhibit: Only Vimal
4. Times of India: The legend began with a Naroda mill
5. Wikipedia: Dhirubhai Ambani (cross-checked dates)

Facts checked against the sources above by Tulasiram Pemmadi on 8 November 2026 (IST). Where reliable sources disagree, the article says so. Spotted an error? See our corrections page or email contact@nextplayintel.com.

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