Ratan Tata Death Anniversary: From Amitabh Bachchan to Simi Garewal, Bollywood stars the industrialist was close to

Ratan Naval Tata, the beloved industrialist and philanthropist passed away on 9th October, 2024 at the age of 86. While the iconic personality shared a great bond with film stars, we are here to talk about the people from the Hindi film industry that the industrialist was closest to:

Amitabh Bachchan

Apart from being a dog lover, the beloved industrialist & philanthropist Ratan Tata was also a movie lover. In fact, he once co-produced a film titled Aetbaar, which featured Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu in prominent roles. Tata and Bachchan were really close and knew each other for a long time.

More about the 2004 thriller

Directed by Vikram Bhatt, Ratan Tata co-produced the romantic psychological thriller with Jatin Kumar under the banner of Tata BSS. Inspired by the 1996 Hollywood film Fear, Aetbaar was inspired by the 1996 Hollywood film Fear and explored the dark realities of romantic obsession. While the performances of the ensemble was praised, the film failed to impress the audience and the box office.

When Tata breathed his last, Amitabh Bachchan penned, “An era has just passed away… his humility, his great resolve, his vision, and his determination to accomplish the very best for the nation, ever a pride… It was my greatest honour to have had an opportunity and privilege to work together towards common humanitarian causes… A very sad day… my prayers.”

The actress and the industrialist shared a close bond and he even graced her talk show Rendezvous With Simi Garewal, where Ratan Tata poured his heart out.

Tata said, “A whole series of things (stopped me from marrying) – timing, my absorption in work at the time. I came close to getting married sometimes, but it didn’t work out.”

“There are many times that I feel lonely about not having a wife or a family, and sometimes I long for it. Sometimes I enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about the feelings of someone else or the concerns of someone else. On other times, it does get a little lonely,” said Tata.

Ratan Tata  on his first love

Tata had opened up on his first love during a chat with Humans of Bombay and why he couldn’t marry her. He revealed, “It was in LA that I fell in love and almost got married. But at the same time, I had made the decision to move back, at least temporarily, since I had been away from my grandmother, who wasn’t keeping too well, for almost seven years.”

He continued, “So I came back to visit her and thought that the person I wanted to marry would come to India with me, but because of the 1962 Indo-China war, her parents weren’t okay with her making the move anymore, and the relationship fell apart.”

While the iconic personality shared a great bond with film stars, his closest friend among them was Gufi Paintal, who was the late Gufi Paintal known for portraying the character of Shakuni in Mahabharat.

In one of the YouTube videos, Gufi spoke about the special bond recalling the late 1960s when he was pursuing his engineering studies in Jamshedpur and shared a hostel with Ratan Tata.

“At that time,  Ratan Tata  had just returned from his training in the United States and was a few years older than me. He used to stay in Room No. 21 and was a very thorough gentleman. Coming from such a respected family, he is now the chief of Tata Group of Companies, and I feel proud as an Indian and a friend,” said Paintal.

Recalling the little moments that defined their friendship, he added, “He used to take us on picnics in his car, and we shared a close friendship. I was the only student he invited to his room for discussions. In the early 1960s, he had a beautiful silver convertible Plymouth, and it was remarkable to see a high-fidelity radio in a car back then. We would listen to English and Hindi songs, and sometimes there would be Binaka Geetmala.”