Sunjay Kapur, chairman of auto component maker, Sona Comstar.
Indian-born billionaire Sunjay Kapur, chairman of auto components maker Sona Comstar, died on Thursday at the age of 53. Kapur had a heart attack while playing polo, his favorite sport, in the U.K. where he was holidaying with his family.
Sona Comstar and the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), confirmed his death. Kapur was the immediate past president of the association.
“A visionary leader, Kapur played a pivotal role in shaping Sona Comstar into a global mobility technology company built on innovation, sustainability, and purpose,” Sona Comstar said in a statement.
Kapur—who had a business degree from the University of Buckingham—took over Sona Comstar in 2015 after the death of his father, Surinder Kapur, a pioneer in the Indian auto parts industry who founded the company in 1995. Since then, he transformed the family business into a global auto parts manufacturer. Sona, which means ‘gold’ in Hindi, was named after his grandfather’s jewelry business.
“Kapur, a respected leader and visionary, was a passionate advocate for the automotive components industry,” ACMA said in its statement. “Under his stewardship, ACMA witnessed significant progress in global competitiveness and EV readiness.”
Based in Gurugram, India, Sona Comstar has 12 manufacturing facilities with over 5,000 employees across India, China, Mexico, Serbia, and the U.S. Benefiting from the booming demand for electric vehicles worldwide, the company’s revenue rose 12% to 35.5 billion rupees ($412 million) in the year ending March 2025. About 36% of that came from EV parts.
According to Forbes’ real-time data, Kapur, who was a U.S. citizen, had an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. He joined the ranks of the World’s Billionaires in 2022. He was married previously to Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor. They had two children and got divorced in 2016. Kapur later married Priya Sachdev, a former model and entrepreneur, with whom he had a son. Just before his death, Kapur posted a condolence message on X about yesterday’s fatal crash of an Air India flight in Ahmedabad.
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