Pirated Edition of “The Polyester Prince”: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani
You’ll get the pirated edition of “The Polyester Prince “at the signals in South Mumbai…don’t pay more than Rs 100
Today’s Sunday Mid Day devotes a whole page to it…….The Book was written in 1998 by Hamish McDonald who in 1991 was appointed to run the India Country desk from New Delhi for “Far Eastern Econimc Review”. He now is the Asia-Pacific Editor of the “Sydney Morning Herald”
The idea of the book actually came in 1992 after the author had met the late Mr Dhirubhai Ambani a few times beginning in 1991 with the Invitation to the marriage of his son Anil Ambani with the Film Actress Tina Munim
The Pirated Print is not too good, but the book does give some insight into the enormous risk taking abilities of the late Dhirubhai Ambani and where the End often justified the Means adopted.
Born on December 28, 1932, Dhirubhai Ambani sowed the seeds for the Reliance Empire soon after he returned from Aden in 1958…. before he crossed 30 years of age… he went on to becoming an icon and also is considered as the father of the Modern Equity Cult.
This controversial book was never really released in India by the Original Publishers Harper Collins as it saw an endless round of litigation ahead with the Reliance Group who had applied for and obtained injunctions against publication on grounds of anticipated defamation as the relationship between the author and the Ambanis had soured after the author wrote a few articles against them
Dhirubhai Ambani passed away in July 2002 and his two sons, Mukesh and Anil soon came to loggerheads leading to an inevitable split of the Reliance Empire
The continuing feud, often vitrolic and bitter, has given strength to a sentiment that National Interests are far more important than Ambani Interests…. moreover it has brought this Book on Dhirubhai Ambani back into the limelight…… I’m sure McDonald must be tempted now to write a sequel to cover this feud…He needed 274 pages to cover the rise of the late Dhirubhai Ambani… he may need twice as much to cover the two sons
I was junior to Mukesh and Anil in the Jewish run Hill Grange High School (Closed down years ago) on Peddar Road in Mumbai…. the late Dhirubhai Ambani sometimes delivered the lunch tiffin himself to his boys. In the late 1980’s I had an opportunity to interact very briefly with Anil who had approached me through the DSJ Publication Group for scripting and making a small film on Reliance. This was in the backdrop of V P Singh’s zeal to bring down the Group and the Share price of Reliance being battered on the Bourses. I never got round to doing the film because I conveyed a stance that while I would highlight the Positives I would not be biased.