For over a decade, The Polyester Prince, an unauthorised biography of Dhirubhai Ambani by Hamish McDonald, was unavailable to Indian readers thanks to legal opposition from the Reliance group. Finally, an up-to-date version of the book, titled Ambani & Sons, is being published in India. Exclusive excerpts.



D hirubhai felt no need to leave a will, apparently confident that Anil would agree to work under Mukesh’s leadership. This was not at all Anil’s attitude when Dhirubhai died in July 2002. He immediately proposed that Kokilaben assume the Reliance chairmanship, leaving the sons as almost equal executive directors.

Mukesh rejected this immediately as “giving the wrong signal” and was voted chairman at the end of the month by the other directors. Talks about splitting the empire between the brothers began around November that year, with Anil talking to both (Anand) Jain and (Amitabh) Jhunjhunwala, but did not make any progress. Around this time, Anil learnt about the...