The man who built India's largest data centre company did it again, for AI. Founded in 2023, Neysa now runs 20,000+ GPUs across Mumbai and Hyderabad — close to 30% of India's high-end AI compute — backed by a Blackstone-led raise of up to $1.2 billion.
It started in 1945 as a steel trading firm called Mahindra & Mohammed. When Mohammed left for Pakistan, the family couldn't afford to reprint stationery reading 'M&M' — so they became Mahindra & Mahindra. Today it is India's largest SUV maker and the world's largest tractor manufacturer by volume.
He started with a toothbrush factory, pioneered cable television in India, built UTV into a media group he sold to Disney for $1.4 billion — and then went and built an edtech company, a sports league and a film studio.
A bad experience with a matrimonial consultant in 1997 turned into Sagai.com, then Shaadi.com. Twenty-eight years later he has backed over 250 startups, chaired India's internet industry body, and acted in two Bollywood films.
Homeschooled by her friends' parents, trained eight years in Kathak, told once she was too fat for a film — and then, in 2018, the first Indian actress ever nominated for an International Emmy.
She spent three years behind the camera as an assistant director to Luv Ranjan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali before she ever stood in front of one. Then: a Filmfare debut award, Munjya's sleeper hit, and the YRF Spy Universe.
Rejected twice from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as a child, spotted singing at Kala Ghoda, cast as young Shah Rukh Khan — and then nominated for a BAFTA for The White Tiger. Adarsh Gourav's route was nobody's plan.
Daughter of two actors who trained as a competitive swimmer, went to Harvard summer school to learn directing, and then became one of the most dependable leads in Indian streaming — Mirzapur, Guilty Minds, Taaza Khabar.
She failed her first audition and was given a backstage job instead. That job introduced her to the writer of Little Things — and a Marathi cup song did the rest. Two Filmfare OTT Awards later, 3.9M follow her.
He taught himself music off YouTube, played bars and weddings, then became Anmol in Mismatched — and wrote two of the show's songs himself. Actor, singer, songwriter and composer, all at once.
An Auckland student uploading Hindi covers from her bedroom won a T-Series contest and got a nickname she never shook off. Shirley Setia now has 7.4M on Instagram, 3.78M on YouTube and three films.
Spotted on Facebook, cast on a hunch, trained at RADA — and now running four brands. Parul Gulati acts in Girls Hostel and Silence 2, and founded the hair-extensions company she took to Shark Tank India.
