Time and situation never stay the same for anyone. People struggle work hard to accomplish their goals and prosper in life. This individual lost his first wife in a plane crash. Later he married one of the top actresses in Bollywood. Once again life threw another challenge when he found himself trapped in a web of debt. But with resilience and support including help from his wifes friend he went on to buy an IPL team. He now owns assets above Rs 4000 crore and he employs more than 15000 people. He is... Meet man who lost his first wife in tragic plane crash faced massive debt now owns Rs 40000000000 empire he is... Born on January 18 1961 to Mahendra Mehta and Sunayana Mehta Jay Mehta is a well-known industrialist. He is the group director of Indian operations at the Mehta Group a family-owned corporation headquartered in Mumbai which spans four continents and has business interests in cement and building materials packaging sugar horticulture and floriculture engineering electrical cables consultancy agro chemicals trade and financial services and international trade. Speaking of his educational qualifications Jay holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University (1983). In addition he completed an MBA from the International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne Switzerland. He is the chairman of the Mehta Group and is also widely recognized as the co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He is the grandson of renowned industrialist Nanji Kalidas Mehta the founder of the Mehta Group. The group has a strong presence in India via Saurashtra Cement and Gujarat Sidhee Cement. As of 2024 the Mehta Group has a total asset base estimated to be in excess of Rs 4100 crore and the company directly employs approximately 15000 people. Recently Jay Mehta also shared in an interview with the Institute for Management Development IMDs official YouTube channel that his business entered a significant crisis due to excessive debt. “First of all don’t take on too much debt. And we got into a debt cycle and it just destroyed us almost destroyed us he said in the interview. It was during this transitional time that (in 2007) Jay made the daring choice to team up with Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Juhi Chawla and purchase the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchise for Rs 630 crore ($75 million). Critics at the time called the decision madness but Jay believed in the opportunity that T20 cricket could generate claiming it could be big in India similar to how football in the US and soccer in Europe became bigger. He described acquiring KKR as a small but smart investment and it certainly paid off. KKR was valued at approximately Rs 9100 crore (about $1.1 billion) in 2024 and the team won the IPL championship three times making them one of the IPLs most successful franchises and valuable. In 1995 he married Bollywood star Juhi Chawla but the wedding was kept very private due to the tragic loss of Juhi’s mother in an accident and the complexities surrounding her film career at the time.
