Mukesh Ambani’s sister Deepti’s marriage united the Ambanis and Salgaocars – not a Reliance Industries business decision, but a love story

Nov 18 , 2020

Raj and Deepti Salgaocar’s marriage might have united two big business families, but it was a love story through and through. Photo: Global TV/YouTube

Before Mukesh and Nita Ambani – and children Akash, Isha and Anant – became the billionaire family we know today, Mukesh and his father Dhirubhai lived next door to Dattaraj Salgaocar, who would one day become an in-law

Mukesh Ambani and his immediate family are always in the spotlight – but not Mukesh’s sister, Deepti Salgaocar, who in contrast lives a quiet life in Goa. But keeping a low profile doesn’t mean never experiencing any grand, real-life fairy tales, and her love affair with husband Dattaraj, or Raj, is exactly that.

Here’s the romantic story of how the two met and eventually got married.

I met Deepti, we fell in love and told our families, who agreed [with the relationship] immediately

Dattaraj Salgaocar, husband of Deepti Ambani

Reliance Industries founder and former chairman, the late Dhirubhai Ambani, at a shareholders’ meeting in Mumbai in 2002. Photo: AP Photo

In 1978, before the Ambani family became the powerful dynasty we know today, they lived in a skyscraper in Mumbai. Patriarch Dhirubhai was busy building the family business and trying to make a name for himself. In the same building, another family was doing the same thing – the Salgaocars. They often passed each other in the hallways and soon became friends.

Dattaraj V. Salgaocar, chairman of VMSalgaocar Corporation Private. Photo: VMSalgaocar Corporation Private Limited

When head of the Salgaocar family Vasudev died, Dhirubhai became a father figure to some of the men in the family, including Raj, who was the same age as Dhirubhai’s son Mukesh. Raj saw Dhirubhai as a mentor and often leaned on him for advice.

Deepti and Dattaraj Salgaocar tied the knot after years of dating. Photo: @Rajsalgaocar/Twitter

Enter Deepti, Dhirubhai’s daughter. The story goes that it was love at first sight, and after dating for over five years, Deepti and Raj got married in 1983. Although many assume that the relationship was a business arrangement, Raj disagrees, explaining that this was a marriage based on love, through and through.

“I met Deepti, we fell in love and told our families, who agreed [with the relationship] immediately,” Raj told Mumbai-based daily DNA. “It was the first wedding in her family, but the last wedding in mine, because I am the youngest of seven children.”

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