Discover the man who read the road before everyone else. From combustion engines to electric drivetrains, Sunjay Kapur dared to leave behind what was working. Step inside the story of Sona Comstar’s transformation.
Rashmeet Kaur Chawla
Quick Introduction: Sunjay Kapur (15 October 1971 – 12 June 2025) was the chairman of Sona Comstar and the second-generation leader of the Sona Group. He did not found the group; his father, Dr. Surinder Kapur, did. Sunjay's contribution was repositioning the company from combustion-engine parts to electric-vehicle drivetrain technology.
Hours before he collapsed on a polo field in Windsor, Sunjay Kapur posted a message of sympathy for the victims of the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. By evening, the chairman of one of India's most important auto-component companies was dead. He was 53.
Sona Comstar spent three decades learning to hold tolerances in microns.Within weeks of his death, boardroom letters, a contested will and court filings turned a quiet engineering story into a national governance debate. The man who prepared the company for a post-engine world left behind a question the company is still answering: what happens to a challenger's legacy when the challenger is gone?
Sunjay Kapur was an Indian industrialist, chairman of Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd (trading as Sona Comstar), a former President of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA, 2021–23), and the first Indian to serve as Global Chairman of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (2007–08). Forbes estimated his net worth at about $1.2 billion at the time of his death.
A correction worth making: viral posts often call him the founder of Sona Group. He was not. He inherited a company with a strong foundation and rebuilt its direction.
Sunjay was born in Delhi to Surinder Kapur and Rani Kapur. He went to The Doon School in Dehradun, where he was house captain of Hyderabad House and represented the school in swimming, water polo, tennis and field hockey. He then attended the Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts, earned a BBA from the University of Buckingham, and completed Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management program in 2013.
Surinder Kapur is known to be one of the founders of India's auto parts sector. It was all about timing. According to his son Sunjay, when Suzuki came to India, it made space for component manufacturing, which then came about through joint ventures with technology being imported into the country. The first such venture for Surinder was with a Japanese steering company.
Popular versions include the fact that the family was in the jewellery business and Surinder began with a fortune worth about ₹50 lakh. However, we did not find evidence of this in any company documents or major business publications, so it may be taken only as family history. What is clear is that the founder knew how to use foreign partners for bringing technology to India and then learning to improve on it
The current Sona Comstar began its operations way back in 1995. The company, Sona Okegawa Precision Forgings, was set up as a 75:25 venture by Sona Group in collaboration with Mitsubishi Materials. The firm started manufacturing warm-forged bevel gears and synchronizer rings in India.
This was no easy task. The process of precision forging involves elimination of various machining processes. The result is top performance transmission components at very economical prices. Production of differential bevel gears commenced in 1998 through the establishment of the first plant in Gurugram. The next plants were established in Chennai in 1999 and in Pune in 2005.
This was far from anything exciting. It was just a slow and steady building of capacity in an area most of us never even think of.
But the most risky decision for the company happened in January 2008. Sona purchased the ThyssenKrupp precision forging division that comprised three factories in Germany and one factory in Selma, Alabama. It should be mentioned that ThyssenKrupp acquired BLW, a Munich-based developer of warm forging technology.
According to Business Today, Sona was buying a company that was far larger than it itself. As a reward, the company got a worldwide portfolio of customers and patented German technology. The decision by Surinder Kapur can be viewed as a footprint play since it made the company "the number one precision forging company in the world."
Also, the acquisition explains the name change. In 2013 the company got its new name Sona BLW Precision Forgings.
Surinder Kapur passed away in 2015. Sunjay, who studied at The Doon School, University of Buckingham, and Harvard Business School, was already well into the firm by then. He took the positions of Managing Director in 2015 and Chairman in 2019.
His true contribution was in providing guidance. His father had set up a first-rate forging company based on the combustion engine. The son understood that the engine itself would be phased out in time and started preparing the company for its successor.
Two key events characterised this era. First, in 2017, the business sold its interest in Sona Koyo Steering Systems to JTEKT for more than ₹850 crore and bought out Mitsubishi's 25 percent stake in the forging company. It was a disposal of the founder's first venture to focus on capital in areas that appeared promising in the future.
Then there was 2019. The business acquired Comstar Automotive, a company that designs and manufactures starters and alternators and rebranded itself as Sona Comstar. Sunjay explained the rationale behind the move as follows: clients would receive integrated solutions for hybrid, electric and regular powertrain applications. Blackstone was one of the companies that participated in the merger, adding capital and global standards to the mix.
It was evident in the scale. Under Sunjay's leadership, the market capitalization of the company crossed the ₹31,000 crore mark.
The turning point was 2017 to 2019: the steering sale, the buyout of Mitsubishi's stake, and the Comstar merger. In three years, the company stopped being a forging specialist and became an integrated drivetrain supplier for hybrid, electric and conventional vehicles. The pivot is why a Gurugram parts maker is now discussed alongside global auto-tech suppliers.
Sunjay Kapur passed away on 12 June 2025 after collapsing while playing polo at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor. He was 53 years old. The board elected to appoint him Chairman Emeritus and appointed independent director Jeffrey Mark Overly as Chairperson from June 23, 2025.
This was immediately followed by a family squabble regarding succession, which the company said was a family issue and had nothing to do with its business. Analysts viewed it as a litmus test for promoter-led governance, and Sona Comstar joins a long list of succession disputes among Indian companies.
1. Pick an uncool technology early on. Warm forming was a niche, and the niche was the moat.
2. Acquire more capability than you need. The ThyssenKrupp acquisition was a stretch, and it acquired both the technology and the customer base that decades of growth organically wouldn't.
3. Sell something good enough to fund the next thing. Exiting steering systems helped fuel the electric vehicle pivot.
4. Plan your succession as well as your manufacturing process. This company's engineering history is stellar. Its future is being written.
Sunjay Kapur never chased the spotlight for his company; the spotlight found him for other reasons. What he did, quietly, was take a respected forging business and aim it at the electric era. That is why he belongs in The Challengers: he challenged the comfort of what was already working.
Every industry has its quiet revolutionaries: people who inherit something solid and dare to ask, “What comes next?” Sunjay Kapur was one of them. Handed a respected forging business, he chose not to simply protect it, but to reimagine it, steering Sona Comstar from combustion engines toward the electric future.
His story reminds that challengers aren’t always the loudest voices in the room. Sometimes they are the ones who read the road early, let go of what worked yesterday, and build for tomorrow. Sunjay is no longer with us, but his vision keeps moving forward, powering a new generation of Indian manufacturing.
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