GOPI HINDUJA and his younger brother, Prakash, have been talking to the GG2 Power List about how they are going about securing the future of the family business. While their eldest brother, Srichand Hinduja, was alive, he held the family together by the sheer force of his personality. The family motto was very Indian: “Four brothers, one soul.” But when he died on May 17, 2023, aged 87, the sole responsibility for leading the group fell on Gopi, who is 84 and headquartered in London. To be sure, he shares the burden with his brothers, Prakash, who is 78 and divides his time between Geneva and Monaco, and the youngest, Ashok, who is 73 and lives in Mumbai. The three brothers constitute the second generation of the business which was founded by their father, Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja. He was born in Shikarpur in Sind (now in Pakistan) on November 25, 1901, and began the family business when he moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1914. London became the centre of the family’s empire after the Iranian revolution of 1979 when the brothers had to uproot from Teheran, where the Hindujas were flourishing under the Shah. At one point, when there was an onion and potato famine in Iran, the Hindujas rescued a desperate Shah by providing the consignment from India. But transporting the lorry loads was tricky because of the politics of India, Pakistan and Iran. “We have always followed the commitment, policies and vision of our parents,” said Gopi. “We always try and create a bridge between the host country and India.” Spanning across continents, the Hinduja group has diversified its businesses in the fields of “mobility, digital technology, media, entertainment & communications, infrastructure project development, lubricants & specialty chemicals, energy, real estate and healthcare.” Their empire now comprises 10 or more “verticals”, among them automotive, energy, banking, IT, power generation, real estate, project development, media, healthcare and trading. The Hindujas employ nearly 200,000 people in some 50 countries. Gopi is proud no one was made redundant during the pandemic. In London last September, it completed a landmark project which Gopi regards as his “legacy” – the conversion of the dark and gloomy Old War Office into a super luxury hotel and residential complex that will be run under the Raffles brand. In February, William, Prince of Wales, visited the hotel where the London’s Air Ambulance charity gala dinner was being held in February this year. “The prime minister of Greece was there, the brother of the Saudi ruler was there, the ruler of Abu Dhabi was there with 22 people,” said Gopi. “(Despite the high prices) everything is going very well.”
There isn’t another business family quite like the Hindujas anywhere in the world. They remain devout Hindus, do not drink alcohol and have remained strictly vegetarian. When the late Queen invited Srichand and Gopi to lunch at Buckingham Palace, she was relaxed about allowing them to bring their own vegetarian food. On Concorde, Srichand would take an assistant with a tiffin carrier. But what is remarkable about the Hindujas is that they have managed to retain cordial relations with Muslim leaders and Islamic countries. Over more than a century they have acquired considerable diplmatic skills in dealing with presidents and prime ministers all over the world. Their famed Diwali parties always have a very diverse guest list. The reins of power have been passing to the next generation – Gopi’s sons, Sanjay, 60, and Dheeraj, 52; Prakash’s sons, Ajay, 55, and Ramkrishan (Remy), 52; and Ashok’s son, Shom, 31. “The next generation is doing great,” declared Prakash. “They are all active, and taking the lead for the Hindujas.” Sanjay, who lives in London, is chairman of Gulf Oil. Dheeraj, who is often in Chennai, is chairman of Ashok Leyland. According to Prakash, “Remy is focusing on different technologies in America. He lives more in California these days. His children are growing up. Ajay is very involved in a new technology called MindMaze (“our digital therapeutic solutions are addressing some of the most challenging problems in neurology and neurorehabilitation today”). He lives in Geneva. Shom in Mumbai is involved in all aspects of green energy.” It seems behind the scenes, the fourth generation is being trained to work alongside their fathers Like many British Asian businessmen, Gopi has spent the winter in Dubai. “Partly for the weather,” he quipped. But it is becoming apparent that Dubai, with its low tax rates and ease of doing business, is luring away many Indians and Pakistanis from the UK. “Dubai – and rest of the UAE (United Arab Emirates),” Gopi made clear.
Many of the major Hinduja companies have now opened outlets in Dubai. “Ashok Leyland is here, Gulf Oil is here. We are the only ones who have been given the royal decree – after all we have done for them.” What Gopi probably meant is that allowing so influential a family as the Hindujas to fly their flag would be interpreted by others as a vote of confidence in the UAE and bring in other big investors. It was certainly a shrewd move on the part of the rulers of Abu Dhabi to allow the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Mandir to be built on 27 acres of land they had donated in 2015. The temple was inaugurated on 14 February by the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who thanked the president of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for the warm welcome he had received: “Whenever I come here to meet you, I always feel I have come to meet my family. We’ve met five times in the last seven months, it’s very rare and reflects our close relationship,” Gopi said he, Prakash and Ashok had attended the opening ceremony, and had been allocated seats “on the front line”. Prakash described the event: “We had a very beautiful darshan (view of the deities). The programme went on from 3pm to 10 at night. But the speeches were so spiritual and powerful, you didn’t feel you were there for seven hours. The industrialists and movie stars were also there – and the Gujarati community.” There seems to be a lot of business facilitated by worship at temples. For example, Modi and Sheikh Nahyan signed a number of bilateral agreements. And the Indian prime minister also made a point of acknowledging the presence of the Gujarati community: “I thank you for accepting my invitation and coming to my home state Gujarat for the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. You have taken this event to new heights and its reputation has increased in the world.” Unlike Lakshmi Mittal, the Hindujas did not attend the actual inauguration of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22. But Prakash and Ashok visited the temple later in February.
“After visiting the Ram Mandir, we went to the investment summit they have every year in Uttar Pradesh when various businessmen sign MOUs,” said Prakash. “Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was there. And we were there representing Ashok Leyland electrical vehicles which the state government is planning to buy from us.” In India and abroad, “we have other projects going on with renewable energy,” said Prakash. “Wherever Ashok Leyland goes, Gulf Oil, with its lubricants, follows. As the (Indian) economy is booming, the consumption of oil is also going up.” There was a time when the Hindujas were very active in distributing Bollywood classics such as Shree 420 and Mother India. Their UK parent company is called “Sangam” after the 1964 Raj Kapoor starrer with the same name. Prakash, who regularly attends the Cannes Film Festival, acts as a sort of cultural ambassador for the family. He has been discussing the possibility of India making co-production movies with a number of European countries. The British prime minister Rishi Sunak refused to meet his Greek opposite number, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after the latter spoke about his country wanting the return of the Elgin marbles. “But I had the pleasure of meeting him,” revealed Prakash, who, like all the Hinduja brothers, appears to enjoy easy access to world leaders. “I said he should make a film about Alexander the Great jointly with India. He liked the idea very much. We are thinking of different co-productions with Spain and Poland as well. There are many stories historically connected with India.”
The Hindujas have traditionally been a conservative family where business was left to the brothers and their sons. But a woman worth watching is Gopi’s daughter-in-law, Shalini, who was a designer at the OWO hotel. Prakash said that Gopi’s elder son, Sanjay, and Shalini, who is married to Dheeraj, were “key persons”. The Hindujas bought the Old War Office, a Grade II* listed building, from the government on a 250-year lease for £350 million. The eightyear restoration to turn the building into a hotel with 125 rooms and suites and 85 private apartments with marble staircases and floors and chandeliers has cost £1.3 billion. The Hindujas clearly have a good relationship with the royal family. A plaque to mark the opening of the OWO was unveiled by Anne, the Princess Royal. Frenchman Sébastien Bazin, the chairman and CEO of Accor hotels, which includes the Raffles franchise, was not one for understatement. The OWO “will likely be among the top five hotels on the planet”, he declared. Towards the end of the launch party, even Rishi Sunak dropped in briefly. Gopi went out of his way to thank two members of his own family: “This project has been a labour of love for the family. I pay special credit to my elder son, Sanjay, and my daughter-inlaw, Shalini, the wife of (my younger son), Dheeraj, who really supported and helped me to bring (the project to) completion.” Princess Anne was escorted by Shalini, who later granted Spear’s Magazine an interview in which she said: “We started with this amazing canvas of a building that was built in 1906 with phenomenal proportions and a beautiful external facade – features that are truly unique. An entrepreneur is someone who takes risks in business and is willing to go against the odds. The acquisition of the Old War Office was exactly that, in the light of where things are in terms of the economy.” When Spear’s announced its awards for 2023, Shalini was the one who picked up the prize for “Entrepreneur of the Year” on behalf of the winners, “Gopi Hinduja & Family”. Sanjay Hinduja also gave an interview to Spear’s, in which he emphasised: “My father told all of us, all his children and my cousins, that nothing is impossible. Next to impossible is still possible. So that’s always been in me and in all our family members. We have invested all our passion and time into this project. We wanted to create a legacy in London. That was the dream of my father and his brothers – to leave a legacy behind. “When we came to Whitehall, we were blown away with the size and beauty of the building. No expense has been spared in bringing it back to its former glory. Every facet of this development has been exciting. To convert an inwardlooking building into one which welcomes everybody to step inside was a challenge.” What was perhaps most unexpected was the “Social Power Index of the most socially significant people in 2023”, published by Tatler. King Charles and Queen Camilla occupied first place. Second place went to Sanjay Hinduja and his wife, Anusuya, with the following explanation: “When your family owns the only private building on Whitehall in a coronation year, yours is the ultimate calling card. Or during Diwali, when your annual party at Carlton House Terrace commands ambassadors of 22 countries and speeches from both sides of the Commons. ‘What’s power?’ Sanjay’s father, Gopichand, asked Tatler, then answered his own question: ‘If you do good things for others, that’s power.’ Anu, often spotted at 5 Hertford Street (a private members’ club), is about to launch her fashion label, An-Y1 – soon to be the social uniform of Mayfair.” At the Hinduja Diwali party in 2023, the King sent his personal greetings through his private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton. After the King’s cancer diagnosis, it is understood Gopi discreetly sent a supportive private message to the monarch.