Sunjay Kapur Passes Away at 53 After Heart Attack During Polo Match in UK
Industrialist and Karisma Kapoor’s former husband Sunjay Kapur dies suddenly on polo field in the UK, leaving behind a legacy of business and sport.
Sunjay Kapur, the Delhi-born industrialist and former husband of actress Karisma Kapoor, died on Wednesday while playing polo in the United Kingdom. He was 53.
The match was underway in familiar terrain—he’d played there before, among peers who shared his love for the sport. It started as an ordinary afternoon. But midway through the game, he collapsed. Onlookers said medics rushed in almost instantly. Still, he didn’t make it. The news travelled quickly—from the field to family phones, to group chats and breaking headlines.
A Man With One Foot in the Boardroom, the Other in the Saddle
Polo wasn’t a rich man’s indulgence for Sunjay. It was something he played with seriousness, with strategy. Those who’d seen him on the field said he was more at home on horseback than at half the fancy dinners he had to attend.
Professionally, he wore many hats. Chairman of Sona Comstar, a leading auto component firm with operations across continents. Under his leadership, the company pivoted towards electric mobility, sealing its place in the next phase of the automobile industry.
He wasn’t just filling a chair. Sunjay had been involved in steering policy through his roles in ACMA and CII, bodies that influence how the country makes, moves, and markets machines. For insiders in the automotive world, his loss is more than emotional—it’s strategic.
That Kapoor Chapter
In 2003, he married into one of India’s most iconic film families. Karisma Kapoor, daughter of Babita and Randhir Kapoor, became his wife in what tabloids at the time called a “high society alliance.” The wedding was hosted at Krishna Raj, the family’s sprawling Mumbai bungalow.
But things unraveled not long after. By 2014, they had filed for divorce. Allegations flew—from emotional neglect to courtroom whispers about coercion during their early days together. The split was made official two years later. They shared custody of their two children—Samaira and Kiaan—who stayed with Karisma in Mumbai.
He remarried in 2017, this time to Priya Sachdev, a model-turned-entrepreneur. Together, they had a son, Azarias, and kept a relatively low public profile. Friends say he found a sense of steadiness in this phase, one that eluded him earlier.
A Final Tweet and an Unfinished Day
What haunts many is the timing. Just a few hours before his passing, Sunjay posted about the Air India Express crash in Ahmedabad, calling it “terrible” and sending thoughts to the families. It was brief, understated—his usual tone online. Then he put his phone away and headed for the polo ground.
No one expected the day would end the way it did.
Tributes From Every Corner
Messages poured in. Industry insiders described him as sharp, solution-driven. Others recalled his quiet humour, his habit of remembering people’s children’s names, of following up after meetings when he didn’t need to.
Suhel Seth, a communications consultant and long-time acquaintance, wrote: “He had taste, he had grace, and he never needed to be the loudest in the room to be heard.”
There’s also the quieter mourning—the kind happening off social media. Among former schoolmates from The Doon School, where Sunjay captained hockey and water polo teams. Among former colleagues who said he still returned calls himself. And yes, among those in Bollywood who, regardless of what the past held, are now rallying around his children.
What Happens Now
In the coming days, arrangements will be made to bring his body back to India. Memorial services are likely to be held in both London and Delhi. At Sona Comstar, senior board members are expected to issue a statement outlining the immediate succession plan.
Beyond corporate continuity, what remains is the legacy of someone who didn’t just move between worlds—he lived inside multiple ones. There was no neat label for him. He could sit at an EV summit in Frankfurt one week, and gallop down a Jaipur polo field the next.
The Final Word
When the news broke, many paused. Not because they knew him intimately, but because his was a name they’d heard across different times—on business pages, in gossip columns, on society pages that track who’s sitting next to whom.
He was part of the backdrop of a certain kind of India—aspirational, chaotic, well-dressed, ambitious. Now, that backdrop has a shadow where Sunjay once stood.
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