Rakesh Jhunjhunwala death anniversary: Remembering India's own Warren Buffett 

Thursday, August 14, 2025, marks three years since the passing of ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, fondly remembered as the 'Big Bull' of Dalal Street. A steadfast optimist, he often said it was India’s time and believed “the mother of all bull runs” awaited domestic equities.

Since his passing from a sudden cardiac arrest in 2022 at the age of 62, the NSE Nifty has delivered a compounded annual return of 13 per cent (total return), while the Nifty Midcap 50 and Nifty Smallcap 50 indices have surged 23.37 per cent and 26.55 per cent annually, respectively.

Jhunjhunwala left behind his wife, Rekha, three children, and a towering legacy that continues to inspire millions. As per Trendlyne, the Jhunjhunwala family holds stakes in 26 companies with a combined market value of over Rs 61,075 crore.

From a starting capital of just Rs 5,000, he built one of India’s greatest investing success stories. By 1988, his net worth had reached Rs 1 crore, which grew to Rs 200 crore by 1993. But as he reminded in an interview to ET NOW, wealth creation was never linear: “We cannot extrapolate things. Success is always transient and temporary.”

For him, risk was the essence of life: “If you don’t take risks, you are nothing.” Known for his ‘Midas touch,’ he embraced mistakes as lessons: “I am right sometimes and wrong sometimes. When I am wrong, I learn.”

A chartered accountant and the son of an income-tax officer, Jhunjhunwala began his Dalal Street journey in 1985, when the Sensex hovered around 150. By the time of his passing, he was India’s largest individual investor, with multibagger bets such as Lupin, BEML, Apollo Tyres, Rallis India, Crisil, Tata Communications, Escorts, Praj Industries, and Apollo Hospitals. His biggest value creator was Titan Company. His family still held Rs 15,944 crore worth this Tata group stock as of June 30, 2025. Other top holdings included Inventurus Knowledge Solutions (Rs 13,286 crore), Star Health (Rs 4,464 crore), and Concord Biotech (Rs 4,154 crore).

Jhunjhunwala's investment firm, Rare Enterprises—named after the first two letters of his and wife Rekha’s names—symbolised his unwavering bullish spirit. Even in bear markets, he maintained that nearly 98 per cent of his wealth came from staying invested. “One can only try to predict risk, debt, and markets, but only the future will tell.”

Equally adept as a trader, he often held on to technically strong stocks even when his investor instincts saw them as overvalued. His words still echo across trading floors: “When there’s doom and gloom, remember there’s darkness before dawn,” and “Always respect the price—there’s a buyer and seller at every level, and only the future decides who’s right.”