BENGALURU: “Building a home is every man’s dream. So our business is in selling dreams,” Confident Group chairman C J Roy once said in an interview — a line that neatly captured both his ambition and the scale of a career that spanned real estate, cinema, television, sports sponsorships and high-profile lifestyles.
From keeping accounts for his mother’s modest property deals to becoming one of Bengaluru’s wealthiest developers, Roy’s rise was swift and striking. Raised in central Bengaluru, he watched the city grow from a quiet town of lakes and paddy fields into India’s tech capital. After stints at BPL, TVS and HP in the 1990s, Roy moved decisively into real estate, betting on the city’s then-ignored outskirts.
His defining move came in 2001, when he bought nearly 200 acres along Sarjapur Road — then a sleepy stretch — at around Rs 6 lakh an acre. While most developers chased central business districts, Roy backed what lay between Whitefield and Electronic City. The gamble paid off handsomely as Sarjapur Road emerged as a major tech corridor, delivering nearly tenfold returns. Confident Group was formally launched in 2005, followed by expansion into Kerala and Dubai.
In Kerala, Roy’s native state, Confident Group became a major real estate player, catering to luxury buyers as well as middle-income families in cities such as Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kottayam.
Roy’s public profile, however, grew sharply after his foray into entertainment. In 2007, he made headlines by gifting a Rs 1 crore apartment to the winner of a popular Asianet reality music show. The group went on to sponsor winner prizes for several seasons and announced a Rs 10 lakh reward for the winner of Bigg Boss Malayalam this year, cementing its visibility in Kerala households.
Buoyed by television success, Roy entered cinema in 2012 with the Mohanlal-starrer Casanovva. Over the next decade, Confident Group funded more than 10 films in Malayalam and Kannada, including big-budget productions. In 2021, it co-produced the historical epic Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham, featuring Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Keerthy Suresh, Arjun Sarja and Suniel Shetty, released in multiple South Indian languages. Other projects included Mei Hoom Moosa (2022) starring Suresh Gopi, and Kannada films such as Rangappa Hogbitna, Krazy Loka and Radhana Ganda.
The group also ventured into global sponsorships, backing the West Indies cricket team in 2013–14 and the Sri Lankan team during the 2016 ICC World Cup. In 2022, it sponsored an international movie awards ceremony with editions in Dubai, Singapore and India.
Away from business, Roy was known for his love of luxury cars — his garage reportedly housed a dozen Rolls-Royces — helicopter rides and golf. On social media, where he had over 1.3 million followers, he projected a carefully curated life of wealth and leisure, even as comments remained switched off. He was also involved in charity work, including rebuilding homes after Kerala’s devastating floods in 2018.
That high-profile life came to an abrupt end on Friday in Bengaluru.
In what police have termed a suspected case of suicide, Roy was found shot dead at Confident Group’s Langford Town office even as Income Tax officials were conducting searches as part of an ongoing probe. According to police, Roy arrived at the office around 2 pm, two hours after the I-T team began the search. Though initially told he could leave, he was later asked to stay back to sign or review documents.
Around 3 pm, Roy reportedly went into his cabin saying he needed another document. Moments later, he allegedly shot himself in the chest with a hand-held weapon. He was rushed to Narayana Hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Ballistics teams are examining the weapon, and police have not confirmed whether CCTV cameras were installed inside the cabin.
A case of unnatural death has been registered based on a complaint by T A Joseph, founding director and managing director of Confident Group. Roy’s wife and two children, both in their early 20s, were in Dubai and are yet to arrive. His mother lives in Koramangala, though aides said Roy rarely stayed with her during his Bengaluru visits.
Income Tax officials from Kochi and Bengaluru had been conducting searches at the group’s premises for three days.
The death triggered sharp political reactions in Karnataka. BJP state president B Y Vijayendra questioned the “hurried” formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Congress government, alleging it was meant to cover up internal lapses. He even dubbed it a “Siddaramaiah Investigation Team”.
The allegations were rejected by law and parliamentary affairs minister H K Patil, who said the SIT was constituted to ensure transparency and bring facts before the public quickly. Health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao also defended the move, saying the probe must examine whether central agencies were misused, drawing parallels with concerns raised after entrepreneur V G Siddhartha’s suicide.
Clarifying that Roy was not affiliated to any political party, Gundu Rao said the case should be viewed beyond politics and investigated fairly.
CJ Roy’s story — from modest ledgers to marquee films, from Sarjapur land bets to Bigg Boss spotlights — ended suddenly, but the imprint of his ambitions remains etched across real estate, entertainment and the public imagination.