Rizwan Sajan has built a diversified conglomerate that is focussed on real estate—he's making residential luxury affordable with his 1 percent per month payment plan
Rizwan Sajan, Founder & Chairman of Danube Group
Is there anything common between Aston Martin, Fashion TV, Tonino Lamborghini Casa and Filmfare on one side, and the slums of Mumbai, one of the largest building materials companies in Dubai, and Danube Group—a diversified business conglomerate which clocked a turnover of $2 billion last year—on the other side? There is only one: Rizwan Sajan. The first-generation entrepreneur was born in the slums of Ghatkopar in Mumbai. After dropping out of school, he landed a job as a salesman in Kuwait, founded a trading firm in Dubai in 1993, went on to buy the rights for Filmfare magazine in the Middle East, and is now building luxury apartments and villas that have a tie-up with brands such as Aston Martin, Fashion TV and Tonino Lamborghini Casa to take care of the interiors of a suite of luxury residential projects.
If you haven’t noticed the Danube Group, you are not watching enough TV, especially the ongoing cricket World Cup matches where the Dubai-based conglomerate with interests in building materials, home décor and real estate has been feverishly advertising, or you have not been flying top Indian airlines where one can spot stickers of ‘The 1% Man’ plastered on the rear side of the headrest of the seats. Over the last few months, Sajan and his Danube Group have been relentlessly wooing Indians to buy high-end and luxury residential properties in Dubai by pitching the country as a great investment destination.
From the slums to luxurious towers, how does one explain the fairytale journey? The entrepreneur starts the conversation by expressing his gratitude. “God has been kind,” smiles Sajan, who ventured into the real estate market of the Middle East in 2014, rolled out 25 residential projects in the UAE over the last nine years, including 10 in the last 19 months, and is trying to make luxuy affordable by launching a 1 percent per month payment plan. “How much of your success is luck, and what would be the share of hard work?” I ask as I try to make sense of his rags-to-riches story. “I would give them equal chances,” he again flashes his endearing smile.
Sajan is building luxury apartments and villas that have a tie-up with brands such as Tonino Lamborghini Casa for the interiors
However hard you work, Sajan underlines, if lady luck is not on your side, you will fail. “Similarly, even if you’re lucky but you don’t work hard, you are bound to fail,” he adds. The clichéd mantra—right person, at the right time and at the right place—to a large extent explains the meteoric rise of the man who had a rough childhood.
(This story appears in the 17 November, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)