One of the famous businessmen in the Indian diaspora who was popular for his rags to riches story, Subrata Roy, the chief of Sahara Group, died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday. He was 75.
He had a prolonged struggle with complications related to metastatic malignancy, and hypertension, sources said.
Roy started the Sahara group in 1978 with a small capital base of Rs 20,000. He took the businesses ranging from housing to aviation, and media to finance.
The Sahara group ran popular TV channels, built townships like the Aamby Valley, owned iconic properties such as the New York Plaza Hotel, the airlines business which was later sold to Jet Airways, and was the official sponsor of the Indian cricket team.
Born in Bihar’s Araria in 1948, Roy began his journey as a businessman in 1976 with Sahara Finance, a chit-fund company. Later in 1978, he took over and revamped the company’s financial model, drawing inspiration from the older Peerless Group.
Roy was known to have friends among the famous and powerful in the fields of politics and Bollywood.
His journey started with the chit-fund scheme that was proliferated in India at the time.
Small investors were gently persuaded to place deposits with his companies on the promise of exponential returns.
Returns were appearing for the investors boosting their confidence. But this lasted for a short time. Reportedly, their money was being used to pay off older investors in a familiar game of merry-go-round in which some had to ultimately be left stranded.