The Gentle Strategist

A LOW-PROFILE VISIONARY WITH A RAZOR-SHARP MIND, DILIP SHANGHVI HAS BEEN QUIETLY TRANSFORMING THE INDUSTRY.

- BY P.B. JAYAKUMAR

IT ISN'T EASY for celebrity billionaires in India to lead a simple, private life, where every move is not under constant public and media scrutiny. But Dilip Shanghvi is a rare exception. The founder and executive chairman of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries—and the eighth-richest Indian with a fortune of ₹2,18,963 crore according to the 2025 Fortune India-Waterfield Advisors study of India's Top 100 billionaires—maintains a remarkably low profile. Unlike many of his peers, there's little public information about his or his family's lifestyle, private jets, or luxury cars.

But then, this is not by chance, but by choice. In fact, Shanghvi has mastered the art of keeping his personal life out of the spotlight, preferring to live like an ordinary person. “That is how I am,” he says with humility.

While most corporate houses are headquartered in and around South Mumbai, Sun Pharma's nerve centre, Sun House, is situated on the Jogeshwari-Goregaon (East) border, along the Western Express Highway—about an hour's drive from Colaba. In 1983, Shanghvi founded the company with a small manufacturing unit in Vapi, Gujarat, along the same route, about three hours away. Over the successive decades, Sun Pharma has grown into one of the world's leading innovation-led pharma majors, operating in over 100 countries with 40 manufacturing facilities and employing 43,000 people globally. Yet, the only visible transformation is the modern Sun House, a new building acquired in 2014, and the arrival of the Jogeshwari East metro station (an elevated station on Metro Line 7) right in front of the building.