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Glamour to glitches: The Bharat Shah story
Bharat Shantilal Shah began his highly successful business career in a small town, Palanpur, in north Gujarat as a diamond merchant. He shot to fame in the 1990s and is not called Mr. Moneybags for nothing. Besides being a highly influential diamond merchant, Bharat Shah also became a powerful part-time financier to the film world and a builder-developer. In addition, he reputedly has tremendous political connections, especially with parties like the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP.
Report: Dhaval Desai
Bharat Shantilal Shah began his highly successful business career in a small town, Palanpur, in north Gujarat as a diamond merchant. He shot to fame in the 1990s and is not called Mr. Moneybags for nothing. Besides being a highly influential diamond merchant, Bharat Shah also became a powerful part-time financier to the film world and a builder-developer. In addition, he supposedly has strong political connections, especially with parties like the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP.
Shah’s company, B. Vijay Kumar & Co., owned by him and his brother Vijay, has units in Mumbai, Surat and Palanpur that has also spread its wings abroad in Thailand, Israel and Belgium.
In 1981, Shah’s company received Israel’s award for generating the country’s maximum exports.
The King of Belgium made Bharat Shah a Knight of the Order in 1994.
In Bangkok, Shah owns the world’s biggest and most modern diamond polishing unit spread over an area of 40,000 sq. mtrs., and having 1,200 workers. The company was established with an initial investment of US $ 5 million. Its annual turnover of finished diamonds is pegged at US $ 100 million.
In Belgium, Shah owns two diamond polishing units and one in Israel.
In Surat, Palanpur and Mumbai there are collectively 25,000 workers in the company’s factories. The collective annual output of diamonds from these units is pegged at Rs 500 crore.
In Mumbai’s SEEPZ in Andheri (E) alone Shah owns a posh six-floor complex with an annual output of gold, platinum and diamond ornaments worth about Rs 700 crore.
Shah had also invested in a factory in Nepal at the invitation of the government and later sold it back to the Nepalese government following refusal to reduce the import duty.
Shah is also touted as the largest private collector of De Beers diamonds in the world.
Since last 10 years, Shah has been continuously bagging the Gems and Jewelry Export Promotion Council award for highest exports, with exports averaging in the upwards of Rs 500 crore annually.
His varied business interests include partnerships in the very popular Mumbai discotheque Fire & Ice and television channel B4U.
Shahrukh Khan’s much hyped e-venture SRKworld.com has also been supposedly financed by Shah. Dreamz Unlimited, a joint project of Shahukh, Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza, has the same story.
BHARAT SHAH AS A BUILDER
Shah jumped into the construction business in 1981 and promptly got an order to construct houses for the economically backward at Mira Road near Mumbai. Shah’s construction company, Shantistar Constructions Ltd. constructed 400 buildings over an area of 200 acres of wasteland – a colony that now houses 40,000 people.
BHARAT SHAH’S LIFESTYLE WAS NO LESS THAN OF A STAR
Grandiose sets were not just for films in Bharat Shah’s life. In 1989, he became the talk of the town in Mumbai when he erected a replica of a Rajasthani palace at the Wankhede Stadium on the occasion of his daughter Reshma’s wedding. The who’s who of the film world and top politicians of the time had attended the same. The grand set erected for the wedding was later used by Shashi Kapoor for his film Ajooba. Shah’s son Rashesh’s wedding held at the Vallabhbhai Stadium in Worli was equally and opulent affair. Another film, Barood, directed by Pramod Chakravarty was shot on the sets erected for the occasion later. Shah lives in a palatial apartment spread over an area of 12,000 sq. ft. at Napeansea Road in south Mumbai. The house has a live-in Jacuzzi and even a gymnasium. Shah and his family collectively own imported foreign cars worth over Rs 1.75 crore, including a startling array of BMWs and Mercs.
Shah jumped into the construction business in 1981 and promptly got an order to construct houses for the economically backward at Mira Road near Mumbai. Shah’s construction company, Shantistar Constructions Ltd. constructed 400 buildings over an area of 200 acres of wasteland – a colony that now houses 40,000 people.
Grandiose sets were not just for films in Bharat Shah’s life. In 1989, he became the talk of the town in Mumbai when he erected a replica of a Rajasthani palace at the Wankhede Stadium on the occasion of his daughter Reshma’s wedding. The who’s who of the film world and top politicians of the time had attended the same. The grand set erected for the wedding was later used by Shashi Kapoor for his film Ajooba. Shah’s son Rashesh’s wedding held at the Vallabhbhai Stadium in Worli was equally and opulent affair. Another film, Barood, directed by Pramod Chakravarty was shot on the sets erected for the occasion later. Shah lives in a palatial apartment spread over an area of 12,000 sq. ft. at Napeansea Road in south Mumbai. The house has a live-in Jacuzzi and even a gymnasium. Shah and his family collectively own imported foreign cars worth over Rs 1.75 crore, including a startling array of BMWs and Mercs.