The names of many celebrities are going viral on social media regarding the possible contestants of Bigg Boss 17. It is discussed that businessman Raj Kundra can also be a contestant of Bigg Boss this time. Raj Kundra is a British-Indian businessman who was ranked by Success as the 198th richest British Asian.
Her father, Bal Krishna Kundra, was a middle-class businessman and her mother, Usha Rani Kundra, was a shop assistant during her childhood. He is married to Shilpa Shetty, an Indian actress, since 2009. Raj Kundra’s parents were Punjabi Hindus, who came from Raipur, India. His father, Bal Krishna Kundra, became a bus conductor in London before running a small business. His mother, Usha Rani Kundra worked as a shop assistant.
Kundra was born and raised in London. At the age of 18, Kundra moved to Dubai and later Nepal and started a business selling pashmina shawls to fashion retailers in the UK and earned his first million. In 2007, he moved to Dubai and founded Essential General Trading LLC, a company dealing in precious metals, construction, mining and renewable energy projects. He was also involved in financing and producing Bollywood films at that time.
Kundra has been married twice, first to Kavita Kundra, with whom he had a daughter. The couple later divorced. On 22 November 2009, Kundra married Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Kundra and Shetty have a son, born on 21 May 2012, and a daughter, born on 15 February 2020, through surrogacy.
Kundra is associated with his wife’s charitable organisation, the Shilpa Shetty Foundation. His book, How Not to Make Money, was published in 2013. Businesses include Satyug Gold, Super Fight League, and most recently Bastian Hospitality, a restaurant chain in Mumbai.
In 2015, Kundra was among the promoters of the online and television broadcast platform Best Deal TV, an Indian television home shopping channel capitalizing on celebrity endorsements. His co-promoter was Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar.
Under the Startup India initiative of the Government of India, Kundra is all set to launch India’s first live streaming social media app, Jaldi Live Stream App, which will allow professional as well as amateur streamers to live stream their content.
In 2009, Kundra and Shetty invested in the Indian Premier League cricket team Rajasthan Royals using a Mauritius-based company. The legality of the investment was questioned by Indian government departments.
In June 2013, Kundra was questioned by the Delhi Police in relation to the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing case, which involved the arrest of some Rajasthan Royals players, further Delhi Police gave a clean chit to Kundra in response. In July 2015, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India banned him for life from any cricket-related activity.
Raj Kundra’s business partner Umesh Goenka claimed in a court that he was forced by the Delhi Police to implicate Kundra in betting and save himself from physical torture and being charged under the Maharashtra Organized Crime Control Act.
Kundra and Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt launched India’s first professional mixed martial arts fighting league, Super Fight League, on 16 January 2012. Kundra was awarded the Champions of Change Award in 2019 for his involvement in the Swachh Bharat Mission. The award was presented by the former President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 20 January 2020 at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi.