Ever since Dhirubhai Ambani broke into India's business world in 1977, his company and his family have been a source of unrelenting media speculation. In the 1980s, the scorching rate of growth set by Reliance led to a flood of stories which asked, "When will the bubble burst?"

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Our previous two covers on the Ambanis

The bubble never burst and Reliance went on to become India's biggest and most powerful industrial house. The Ambanis claim that their businesses contribute 10 per cent to the government revenues, that theirs is India's only private-sector company on the Fortune-500 list. It is estimated that the family's net worth is as much as Rs 50,000 crore.

In 1982 Dhirubhai featured on an India Today cover as one of four "Growth Kings". In 1985 he made the cover solo, this time as the "Super Tycoon". We have put the Ambanis and Reliance on our cover five times. For the past two years, Dhirubhai's sons, Mukesh and Anil, have finished on top of our Power List of the most influential people in India.

After the patriarch's death more than two years ago, fears for the business were stilled by the manner in which his sons took charge. Although Reliance boasts of a high degree of skilled management, it continues to revolve around the family, and is considered a professionally managed, family-run business. Recently, Reliance made news largely for its growth and profits. But all changed last week, when Mukesh, the older of the brothers, admitted to "ownership issues". The aftershocks of that statement caused a 3 per cent drop in share prices. The future of the empire rests on how a silent tussle for control pans out. This is not just a story about Indian business, it is also about the business of family; a matriarch trying to keep two temperamentally dissimilar brothers together, even as feuding wives and ambitious advisers are allegedly pulling them apart.

Our cover story this week discusses the dynamics between Mukesh and Anil and its impact on the Reliance empire. Editor Prabhu Chawla coordinated the story along with Assistant Editor Malini Bhupta to reveal the extent of the Ambani empire and the intensity of the rift. Chawla, who has known the brothers for a quarter of a century now, says, "Theirs is the relationship of the right and the left hand-they may go in different directions but will have to remain attached to one cultural and corporate body-and that is Reliance."

The Ambani feud may look like a Shakespearean drama but with a Rs 1,00,000 crore business, 80,000 employees and millions of investors, this is not the stuff of fiction.

It involves very real consequences which are yet to unfold.

(Aroon Purie)

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