Anil Ambani is the sole Indian on this year’s Vanity Fair Power List, called The New Establishment 2009.
He fell 30 places — last year, he and his brother Mukesh were jointly ranked 67.
Fifty-year-old Anil’s splashy entry into Hollywood this year included a $500 million investment in Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks (Spielberg himself is 11th on this year’s list).
He romanced Hollywood in the middle of finding his Bell 412 chopper sabotaged with pebbles in the gearbox,
continuing the mother of all family fights with his elder brother Mukesh, and seeing his wealth shrink by $32 billion (a Fortune magazine estimate).
The DreamWorks deal follows Anil’s company, Reliance ADAG’s production partnerships with box-office heavy hitters like George Clooney (ranked 39), Brad Pitt (ranked 8) and Tom Hanks (ranked 35).
On top of the list is Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein (54). Ahead of Ambani is Jason Kilar (ranked 96), CEO at Hulu, a website that streams popular TV shows.
Behind him is Craig Venter (ranked 98), the scientist who mapped the code for his own DNA and published it on the Internet.
{{/usCountry}}Behind him is Craig Venter (ranked 98), the scientist who mapped the code for his own DNA and published it on the Internet.
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