Here’s a brief rundown of the brothers’ contentious relationship.

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For years, the brothers were close

During their younger years, the brothers worked together at Reliance Industries under their father, Dhirubhai Ambani. During this time, it was reported that the brothers displayed remarkable interpersonal chemistry, sometimes even finishing each other’s sentences. It was a widely held belief that the two would eventually both take over Reliance Industries and run the business empire side by side.

The feuding started when their father died

In 2002, their self-made father, the founder of Reliance Industries, died of a stroke. The complicated part? He hadn’t written up a will. Naturally, the two brothers fought over their father’s sizeable fortune and massive corporate holdings.

Finally, Mukesh and Anil’s mother Kokilaben brokered an agreement for the brothers, demerging Reliance Industries so that Mukesh could take over the oil and chemical portion of the company and Anil could take over the electricity and telecom arm of things.

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But even with the company split in half, the brothers continued to butt heads

While Mukesh and Anil both had sizeable portions of Reliance under their control, they still disagreed time and time again. For instance, in 2008 Anil sued Mukesh for defamation after he criticised Anil in The New York Times. 

Anil also repeatedly blamed Mukesh for Reliance’s unpopular decisions, going so far as to take out an ad in The Times of India that criticised his brother for raising gas prices. This culminated in a 2010 case between the brothers that went to the Supreme Court of India. Once again, Mum came to the rescue and brokered a non-compete clause between the siblings so their business disagreements could cool down.

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At the time, they weren’t just brothers; they were also neighbours 

Amid the many feuds of the previous decade, the brothers lived near each other in the swanky “Seawind” neighbourhood of South Mumbai – but that was the only form of closeness they experienced.

During this time, it was said the brothers didn’t even speak to each other, and their families rarely interacted, even though both are family men with multiple children around the same age.

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Anil’s fortunes soon took a turn for the worst

While Mukesh’s fortune has grown tremendously over the years, Anil’s holdings have trended in the other direction. And it’s partly due to the massive success of Reliance Jio, Mukesh’s affordable mobile network that has put most competitors out of business – including his brother.

One casualty of Jio’s success was Anil’s Reliance Communications, which swiftly lost shareholder value in 2016 and was eventually bought out by Jio in 2017. Wasn’t Anil meant to take telecoms?

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But is their relationship taking a positive turn?

Things got so bad for Anil that he was going to face jail time if he didn’t pay a debt to Swedish mobile firm Ericsson. Anil had nowhere else to turn, and Mukesh ended up paying off the debt and saving him from jail time.

“My sincere and heartfelt thanks to my respected elder brother, Mukesh, and [his wife] Nita, for standing by me during these trying times,” said Anil in response to Mukesh’s help.

So after nearly two decades of strained relations between the brothers, Mukesh came through for his younger brother. It’s proof that family always comes first – even for two fierce business rivals.

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