The Hinduja Feud - Gripping As A Bollywood Plot, Happy Ending Unlikely

With a collective net worth of about $15 billion, the four brothers always presented a united front, with little to suggest that not all was well in the House of Hinduja

As a child in London, one of Karam Hinduja's favorite pastimes was watching Bollywood movies with his grandfather Srichand Hinduja, the patriarch of a sprawling global business empire.

"He and I, without fail, once a week, whatever was new, whether it was good or bad," Karam said in a recent interview in Geneva. "That's a lot of how we bonded."

Little did he know then that a quarter century later the two of them would be embroiled in a real-life family drama more gripping than any Bollywood plot. And unlike most of the tearjerkers they watched, this one may not have a happy ending. 

His grandfather, SP as the 85-year-old is known, now suffers from a form of dementia, and Karam, his sister, mother, aunt and grandmother are locked in a battle with the rest of the Hinduja family over pieces of the $18 billion British-Indian group. Karam's side of the family is effectively asking for what was once unthinkable - the group's assets to be broken up. SP's three brothers, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok want the group to stick to its age-old motto that "everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone."