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In 2002, on a busy afternoon in Mumbai, Dalal Street was quiet, but the ringing of the phone in Rakesh ji's office broke that silence. On the other end was a broker whose voice clearly showed nervousness. "Rakesh Bhai, Morgan Stanley is in panic. They are going to sell a block of โน90 lakh shares of Titan. If you just pick up 5 lakh shares, I will get them for you at just โน32, below the market rate."
At that time the entire market was running away from Titan. The company was in losses and there were questions about its management. But Rakesh Jhunjhunwala took a long drag of his cigar, and without blinking he said, "Finalize the deal and take the entire stock."
This wasn't just a trading call. This was the foundation of the empire that we today call a โน45,000 crore portfolio. Harshad Mehta was the only person who had held the crown of Big Bull in his hands for years before him. This was a man who bet on India when the world thought India was poor. Today we will understand the journey from โน5,000 to โน45,000 crore that made Rakesh Jhunjhunwala the Warren Buffett of India.
Let's start this untold story of the Big Bull, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. Rakesh ji was born on 5 July 1960 in Hyderabad. His family was from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, and because of this connection, "Jhunjhunwala" was added to his name. His father, Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala, was an Income Tax Officer. Often in the evenings his friends would come home and discuss the stock market.
At just 15, Rakesh ji used to listen to all these conversations secretly every day. One day he asked his father, "Papa, why do share prices fluctuate every day?" The father replied, "Son, read the newspaper. Understand the relationship between news and share price. You will understand everything gradually."
This was the moment when the seed of the stock market was first sown in Rakesh ji's mind. But his father put a condition: complete your studies first. Rakesh ji did B.Com from Sydenham College and became a Chartered Accountant in 1985. The father wanted his son to have a stable job, but Rakesh ji's heart beat on Dalal Street.
When he expressed his desire to enter the market and asked his father for some money, his father flatly refused. "Don't ask me for money, and don't borrow it from any friend either." Rakesh ji checked his pocket and found only โน5,000 in savings. But he had a great passion to enter the market. In 1985, with just โน5,000, he entered the stock market.
At that time the Sensex was only around 150. He initially made some small trades so that he could understand market movements. Meanwhile, his elder brother Sangeet, who was himself a CA, brought a wealthy woman to Rakesh ji. That woman wanted to invest her money in the right place. In those days, banks gave 12 to 13% interest on FDs.
But Rakesh ji promised to give that woman 18% interest and took an investment of โน5 lakh from her. After this, through some more clients, he collected a total fund of โน1 lakh, and then came the year 1986. Rakesh ji placed his first big bet on Tata Tea shares. He bought 5,000 shares at โน43. Tata Tea's price reached โน143 in just three months.
Profit: straight โน5 lakh. This was his first big victory, but the real picture was yet to come.
In 1989, India's mining company Sesa Goa, now known as Vedanta, was suffering huge losses due to the global crisis. The share price had fallen to just โน28. Rakesh ji gathered a total of โน1 crore by using all his savings and some borrowed money, and invested the entire amount in Sesa Goa shares.
Just imagine how big a sum โน1 crore was for a middle-class boy in those days. But Rakesh ji had complete confidence in his research. This was the biggest and most dangerous risk of his life, but luck favoured him. Within a few years, the stock rocketed to the level of โน2,200. Sesa Goa's shares made Rakesh ji a millionaire.
The boy who once had only โน5,000 in his pocket paid income tax of โน20 lakh for the first time that year.
During this period, a very emotional and famous incident is related to Rakesh ji's life. He married Rekha ji in 1987. Rekha ji belonged to a wealthy family where all the luxuries, like AC and cars, were available. But after marriage, there was no AC in Rakesh ji's house. Rekha ji would often ask for one, but at that time Rakesh ji was investing money in the market to grow his capital.
Then came 1990, during V.P. Singh's government. There was a buzz in the corridors of Delhi as Finance Minister Madhu Dandavate was about to present the budget. The market was scared. Everyone thought the budget would be anti-business. But Rakesh ji believed that V.P. Singh's government would not do this. He put in all his efforts, traded that day, and a miracle happened. In that one night his net worth rose from โน3 crore to โน1 crore... no, from โน3 crore to โน10 crore. The next morning he gifted a wonderful AC to Rekha ji and said something big: hobbies should always be funded from investment profits, not from your original capital.
Now the question arises: where did Rakesh ji get the courage to make such big bets? In fact, he met two legends on Dalal Street who changed his thinking. One was Radhakishan Damani, today the owner of DMart. Rakesh ji considered him his guru and elder brother. The other was Manu Manek, who was called the Black Cobra in the market. Manu Manek was a famous bear, i.e., a short seller, who used to make money when the market fell. Rakesh ji also joined Manu Manek's group for some time.
But in 1991, when Harshad Mehta started his bull run, he took the market to such heights that the bear cartel suffered huge losses. Rakesh ji and Damani ji also had to bear heavy losses at that time. But as soon as the Harshad Mehta scam came to light in 1992, the entire market collapsed like a house of cards. While the world was crying, Rakesh ji took advantage of this fall and did a lot of short selling. At that time he earned around โน30 to โน35 crore, but from here his thinking changed.
He understood that short selling was a short-term game. The real future of India lies in long-term investing.
In 1992, after the turmoil of the Harshad Mehta scam and Manu Manek's separation from the bear cartel, Rakesh ji decided to create a new identity for himself. He founded his own asset management company, called Rare Enterprises. There was a sweet and personal secret behind this name: "Rare" was named after Rakesh ji and his wife Rekha ji. "R" stood for Rekha, and "RA" for Rakesh. This company was not just a paper firm. It was the nerve centre of Rakesh ji's empire, from where he decided the fate of Indian companies and his own.
This was the period when Rakesh ji shed the image of a short-term trader and moved towards becoming a mature, long-term investor. In 1994, American giant Morgan Stanley launched India's first foreign mutual fund. People felt that now only foreign companies would run our market. But then a recession hit, and Morgan Stanley started withdrawing its money from India.
This was the moment when Rakesh ji made the world acknowledge his talent. He said with great pride, "What do foreigners know? India is a sleeping lion, and it has now awakened." When everyone was selling out of fear, Rakesh ji bought heavily and proved that an Indian investor has the highest confidence in his own country.
Now let's talk about the phone-call deal we mentioned at the beginning. That โน32 deal for Titan in 2002 seemed like a suicide mission at the time, because Titan was running in losses. A big investor like Morgan Stanley wanted to get rid of Titan. They felt the company's jewellery business, Tanishq, would never make profits. The watch business had also slowed down, and Morgan Stanley feared that all their money might be lost. That is why they wanted to sell their entire holding and run away from the market.
But Rakesh ji did not just look at the charts. He met Titan's MD, Bhaskar Bhatt, and understood the company's real strength. He recognised the trust value of the Tata brand and the growing interest of the Indian middle class. He was absolutely confident that Tanishq, which was in loss today, would become India's biggest jewellery chain tomorrow. Rakesh ji bought 5 lakh shares of Titan and did not stop there. He kept buying, and at one point he owned 6 crore shares of Titan.
Here's a puzzle that confuses a lot of people. People say he bought Titan at โน3, when in reality he bought it at โน32 to โน35. In 2011, the shares were split, and one share was divided into 10 parts. Because of this, his purchase at โน30 became only โน3 on paper. This is the real magic of compounding. He kept those shares safe for 20 years. Today his family owns more than 5% of Titan, worth thousands of crores.
Rakesh ji often used to say that money in the market is made not with the mind alone but with the heart and the gut. The real player in the market is the one who sticks to his research even in the biggest storm.
But friends, as they say, every coin has two sides. Rakesh ji was not some god for whom everything turned to gold the moment he touched it. He too suffered great losses. In 2019, he took a heavy hit, roughly โน178 crore to โน221 crore, in DHFL, when that company got caught in a scam and debt crisis.
He also suffered huge losses in Mandana Retail, the company linked to Bollywood star Salman Khan's Being Human brand. Some of his other investments, like DB Realty and several smaller companies, also disappointed him. But his speciality was that he immediately accepted his mistakes and moved ahead after learning from them.
Despite these losses, Rakesh ji's portfolio was always in the news. He did not rely solely on Titan. He had spread his bets across every sector of the market, with large investments in dozens of strong companies like CRISIL, Lupin, PI Industries, and Vol tas. His strategy was very clear: find companies that may be undervalued today, but whose future is directly linked to India's progress. For example, he invested in Lupin at a time when India's pharma sector was making its mark globally.
Rakesh ji often gave an example in his outspoken style: if a girl is beautiful, people seeking marriage will come automatically. That means if a company's business and management are strong, sooner or later the market will recognise its true value. He didn't just buy shares; he bought a piece of India's growth story.
The problems were not limited to the ghats alone. In 2021, Rakesh ji's spotless career was overshadowed by a controversial allegation. He was accused of insider trading in the Aptech shares case. SEBI alleged that Rakesh ji and his close associates traded on the basis of information not available to the general public. But instead of fighting a long legal battle, Rakesh ji settled with SEBI for around โน37 crore. He paid this amount to end the legal process without admitting to the offence.
At the time, this was a hot topic across the market. But despite this, he always stayed away from big scams and maintained his identity as a long-term investor.
Despite his failing health, and being on dialysis in his last days, Rakesh ji's courage did not diminish. In 2021, he took the last and most emotional risk of his life by starting Akasa Air. Some people laughed, and some joked that even the rich lose money in airlines. But Rakesh ji fearlessly said, "I want the common man of India to be able to fulfil his dream of air travel at a low cost."
Look at the timing. On 7 August 2022, just a week before his death, Akasa Air's first flight took to the skies. And on 14 August 2022, the lion of Dalal Street fell silent forever. Kidney disease took India's biggest bull away from us. He taught us to sit right. He proved that if you have faith in yourself and your country, even โน5,000 can become โน45,000 crore.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is gone, but in every falling market, when someone loses courage, his voice echoes: the market is supreme, and the market is at its peak.
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