When Dhirubhai and Kokilaben Ambani were against Anil Ambani marrying Tina Munim

While India and Asia's richest person Mukesh Ambani and his family often make the headlines, his younger brother Anil Ambani is also quite well known. Anil Ambani, also a businessman, is the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Group. Talking about his personal life, Anil Ambani is married to former Bollywood actress Tina Munim. But did you know, there was a time when his parents Dhirubhai and Kokilaben Ambani were against their youngest son Anil marrying Tina Munim? Yes, you read that right! Here's why...




When Anil met TinaIn 1983, after completing an MBA degree from Wharton, Anil Ambani first saw Tina Munim at a wedding. While it wasn't a moment of love at first sight for him, Tina Munim definitely left a mark of impression on Anil. The reason, as Anil has said in earlier interviews, was that Tina was wearing a black saree-- which is quite unusual to see in a traditional Hindu wedding. And this made Tina stand out from others at the wedding. However, Tina and Anil did not speak to each other at this event. A few months later the duo were introduced to each other through a common friend at Philadelphia. But being an actress, Tina was used to being approached by men and so she turned down Anil's offer to go on a date.

As fate would have it, in 1986 they met each other again. This time when they were introduced by Tina's nephew, who wanted to meet one of his friends who was also a Gujarati. Anil and Tina met on their first date and they quickly fell for each other. However, when Anil's parents came to know that he was dating someone from the Hindi film industry they were against it as they had certain notions about people from the film industry. And so, Anil and Tina broke-up their relationship owing to the Ambanis' opposition.

How did Anil and Tina end up marrying each other?

Anil and Tina Ambani

After their break-up, Tina moved to the USA to pursue an interior designing course. During this time Anil and Tina were not in touch. It was only once when Anil called up to check-in on her, that too when he came to know that there was an earthquake in Los Angeles. While Tina tried to move on in life, Anil kept refusing other arranged marriage proposals for four years. Finally, his parents and family agreed to Anil's wish of marrying Tina and that's when he called her up and asked her to come back to India. Apprehensive of things between them, Tina kept postponing her return until one day when Anil gave her an ultimatum that if she didn't return, he would stop talking to her. That's when Tina came back to India and she was surprised to see Anil at her home the very next day. Anil had already discussed the marriage proposal with her family, and on February 2, 1991, Anil and Tina got married in a traditional Gujarati wedding.

Anil and Tina have been together for over 30 years and they have two sons together-- Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul.