Who is Nusli Wadia?
Who is Nusli Wadia?
Who is Nusli Wadia? He is chairman of the Wadia Group, a Mumbai business empire that runs from biscuits to textiles and traces its roots to shipbuilding in 1736 1. Its companies include Britannia Industries, India’s well-known biscuit maker, and the home textiles firm Bombay Dyeing 1.
He has led Bombay Dyeing since 1977 and is known in the Indian press as a “corporate samurai” for the many legal battles he has fought 13. The best known was against the Tata Group after he was removed from the boards of three Tata companies in 2016 1. His mother, Dina Wadia, was the only child of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan 13.
How did Nusli Wadia make his money?
Forbes does not class his fortune as self-made 1. It rests on four pillars:
- Inheritance: His paternal grandfather, Sir Ness Wadia, was a textile industrialist, and his father, Neville Wadia, ran Bombay Dyeing before him 3.
- Keeping the company (1971): When his father planned to sell Bombay Dyeing, Nusli, then 26, built an 11% stake with the help of family, friends and his mentor J.R.D. Tata and persuaded his father not to sell 3.
- Britannia: Forbes credits him with about 8.62 crore Britannia shares, by far his largest listed holding 1. Britannia reported FY26 revenue of ₹18,858 crore and net profit of ₹2,533 crore 4.
- Mumbai land: Bombay Dyeing agreed in 2023 to sell 22 acres in Worli for ₹5,200 crore, and Forbes says he sold a 10-acre Mumbai parcel for more than $130 million in 2024 15.
What companies does Nusli Wadia own?
Forbes lists stakes in Britannia Industries, Bombay Dyeing and National Peroxide, along with Bombay Burmah Trading 1. The group’s budget airline, Go First, filed for insolvency in May 2023 and was ordered into liquidation in January 2025 16. See Nusli Wadia’s companies.
What is Nusli Wadia’s net worth?
Forbes’ real-time list put Nusli Wadia’s net worth at $4.90 billion (about ₹46,700 crore) on 5 November 2026, 45th in India and 884th in the world 12. It rose by $83 million, or 1.72%, that day 1. By our calculation, his Britannia shares alone were worth about $4.47 billion 1.
Early life
He was born in Bombay on 15 February 1944 to Neville and Dina Wadia 13. He went to the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai and then Rugby School in England 3. Read the Nusli Wadia biography.
Who is in Nusli Wadia’s family?
He married Maureen Wadia, a former air hostess who heads Gladrags magazine, in 1970 3. They have two sons, Ness and Jehangir 3. Ness co-owns the IPL cricket team Kings XI Punjab, now Punjab Kings 1. See Nusli Wadia’s family.
Where does Nusli Wadia live?
Forbes lists his home city as Mumbai 1. In 1989 Mumbai police said they had uncovered a plot to kill him; after a long trial, the two surviving accused were acquitted in 2023 3. See Nusli Wadia’s lifestyle.
Nusli Wadia’s career at a glance
Key dates: birth (1944), Bombay Dyeing trainee (1962), joint MD (1970), saving the company from sale (1971), chairman (1977), Tata board removals (2016), defamation case withdrawn (2020), Go First insolvency (2023) and liquidation order (2025). See the Nusli Wadia career timeline.
Rankings Nusli Wadia appears in
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Richest people in India: #45 on Forbes real-time, 5 November 2026 1
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Richest people in conglomerates, alongside Jamshyd Godrej
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