FE Dinshaw, Framroze Edulji Dinshaw, was the second son of the Karachi landowner and philanthropist Seth Edulji Dinshaw

Seth Edulji Dinshaw

Seth Edulji Dinshaw was one of the foremost philanthropists from prepartition Karachi. A member of the Parsi community, he made his initial fortune during the Second Afghan War by being a contractor for the British Army. He then took his wealth and invested it in land and factories which reaped...

, and was one of prepartition India's most prominent businessmen and lawyers. He died in January 1936.

Landholdings

FE Dinshaw took over and expanded upon his father's landholdings in Mumbai. The FE Dinshaw Estate is today the largest private landowner in Mumbai, with a total holding of 2,200 acres. It is today administered by industrialist Nusli Wadia

Industry

FE Dinshaw played a key role in the foundation of the Indian cement business, pioneering a merger between ten companies owned by Tata, Khatau, Killick Nixon and Dinshaw, so as to form Associated Cement Companies Limited.

He was closely associated with the Tata Group

Tata Group

Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Tata Group is one of the largest companies in India by market capitalization and revenue. It has interests in communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy,...

. By the time of his death, he owned some 12.5% of the group, a shareholding now owned by Indian billionaire Pallonji Mistry

Pallonji Mistry

Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry is an Irish-Parsi construction tycoon. According to Forbes, his wealth is estimated to be US$8.8 billion as of 2011. He is the richest person of Parsi descent followed by Adi Godrej at US$7.3 Billion . With his 18.5% stake in Tata Sons, he is the single largest...

. FE Dinshaw's residence in Pune, which was designed by the architect George Wittet

George Wittet

George Wittet was a Scottish architect who worked mostly in Bombay , India.-Life:George Wittet was born in Blair Atholl, Scotland in 1878. He studied architecture with a Mr...

, is now the Tata Management Training Centre.

Finance

In addition to his landowning and industrial endeavours, FE Dinshaw was the financial advisor to the Maharajas of Gwalior.

Cinema

FE Dinshaw played a key role in the development of the Bombay Talkies

Bombay Talkies

The Bombay Talkies Limited was a movie studio produced 102 movies, founded in 1934 in Malad, Bombay , India, by Himanshu Rai, Rajnarayan Dube and Devika Rani along with businessmen like F. E...

, the most modern film studio in India in the 1930s. It was his summer mansion in suburban Mumbai which was the first venue for the studios, and he contributed capital to the project.

Memorial Library

In 1967, the Indian Merchants' Chamber set up the FE Dinshaw Commercial & Financial Reference Library in order to commemorate his contribution to Indian industry. The library is located at 78, Veer Nariman Road, behind Churchgate Station in Mumbai. It is funded by the FE Dinshaw Memorial Trust.

Family

He had one son, Edulji F. Dinshaw, and two daughters, Bachoobai and Manekbai. Edulji and Bachoo settled on Fifth Avenue in New York in the 1940s.