Subrata Roy (1948-2023) was the founder of Sahara India Pariwar, a group that grew from a small savings scheme in Gorakhpur into one of India’s most visible business houses. His life, from huge success to a long legal battle with SEBI, is now the subject of Hansal Mehta’s web series Scam 2010: The Subrata Roy Saga.
Early life and education
Subrata Roy was born on 10 June 1948 in Araria, Bihar, to Sudhir Chandra Roy and Chhabi Roy, a Bengali family. He went to school at Holy Child Institute in Kolkata and studied mechanical engineering at the Government Technical Institute in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.
How Sahara grew
In 1976 he joined a small finance firm, Sahara Finance, and soon took it over. In 1978 he founded what became Sahara India Pariwar. The early business collected very small daily or weekly deposits from rickshaw pullers, traders and labourers, often in towns where banks were few. Agents walked door to door, and this reach became the group’s core strength.
The group later moved its base to Lucknow and expanded into many fields:
- Media: the Rashtriya Sahara newspaper (1992) and Sahara One TV.
- Aviation: Air Sahara, sold to Jet Airways in 2007.
- Real estate: Aamby Valley City near Pune and Sahara Shahar in Lucknow.
- Hotels: Hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai, Grosvenor House in London and The Plaza in New York.
- Sport: sponsorship of the Indian cricket team and a stake in the Force India F1 team.
He called himself the Managing Worker of the group and often described its staff as a family, which is why the word Pariwar is in the name.
The SEBI case and jail term
From around 2010, SEBI questioned how two Sahara companies had raised money through optionally fully convertible debentures from millions of investors. In 2012 the Supreme Court ordered a refund of more than ₹24,000 crore with interest. Sahara said it had already repaid most investors directly. In February 2014 the Supreme Court ordered Roy’s detention after he did not appear before it, and he was held in Tihar Jail in Delhi. He was released on parole in May 2016, after his mother’s death, and remained outside jail after that while the case continued.
Subrata Roy’s family
- Wife: Swapna Roy.
- Sons: Sushanto Roy and Seemanto Roy. Their double wedding in Lucknow in 2004 was one of the most talked-about weddings of the decade.
- Mother: Chhabi Roy, who died in 2016.
Read more about them in our explainer on the Roy family.
Death
Subrata Roy died on 14 November 2023 at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai, at the age of 75, after a long illness, according to a Sahara statement. His sons were reported to be abroad and did not attend the last rites.
His legacy
Supporters remember Roy as a man who gave jobs to lakhs of people and brought savings to small towns. Critics point to the questions raised by regulators and the money still waiting to reach investors. Both views will shape how audiences receive Scam 2010.
Questions to think about
- How did Sahara reach savers that banks could not, and what does that say about financial inclusion?
- Should regulators have acted sooner, or did they act at the right time?
- How should history remember business founders whose cases were never fully closed?