A son of Saurashtra who became a father to thousands.

Roots in Saurashtra

The Savani family traces its roots to Ranparada, also written Raparda, a village in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Local reports place it in the old Bhavnagar district, in the area that is now part of Botad. The family belongs to the Patidar community of Saurashtra. Like thousands of Saurashtra families in the second half of the twentieth century, they found their future in Surat, a city whose diamond-cutting and polishing workshops drew workers from villages across the region.

That migration is central to Surat’s modern story. Saurashtrian families who arrived as artisans and labourers went on to build many of the city’s diamond units, and later its schools, housing societies and hospitals. The Savani story follows that arc across two generations.

A father’s climb

Mahesh Savani’s father, Vallabhbhai Savani, began at the bottom of the diamond trade. He worked as a labourer at a diamond manufacturing company for a salary reported at ₹125 a month. In 1978 he installed a single machine and started his own diamond manufacturing unit, the seed of what became the PP Savani Group.

The group carries the initials of Vallabhbhai’s elder brother, the late Premjibhai Popatbhai Savani. According to the group, Vallabhbhai laid the foundation stone of the P P Savani Group of Schools in 1982, with the first school at Khodiyar Nagar in Surat’s Varachha area. (A group school’s own history gives 1987 as the year the group was established.) Vallabhbhai Savani is today president of P P Savani University.

The journey from a ₹125-a-month job to a family-run university is the backdrop to everything his son would later build, in business and in service.

Education

Mahesh Savani attended Sadhana Vidyalaya and then studied civil engineering at Dayananda Sagar in Bengaluru, where he earned a diploma. Most reports describe it as a diploma; one Gujarati profile calls it a degree.

Building the enterprise

He joined his father’s diamond business in 1990. Under his watch, output reportedly rose from about 35,000 to about 300,000 pieces a month, and the business opened branches in Mumbai, Belgium and Hong Kong.

The early 2000s were difficult. From 2003 he faced legal cases connected with diamond imports and spent about three years in Mumbai and Belgium, between 2004 and 2007. He was acquitted and returned to Surat. Around 2008 the family moved into real estate, a sector in which the group has since built housing and townships.

In a 2018 profile, The Weekend Leader estimated the group’s turnover at around ₹1,000 crore. It described activities spanning housing, townships, schools, universities and hospitals in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Institutions associated with the group include:

• P P Savani University, Kosamba, Surat district
• PP Savani Cambridge International School
• PP Savani Chaitanya Vidya Sankul, Abrama, Mota Varachha: the venue of the annual weddings
• PP Savani Vidyabhavan and Radiant English Academy branches
• P.P. Savani School, Ankleshwar
• P.P. Savani Heart Institute & Multispeciality Hospital, Varachha Road

Mahesh Savani is described as a director of the P.P. Savani Group and chairman of Mitul Group.

Family

He is one of three brothers, with Rameshbhai and Rajeshbhai (Rajubhai) Savani. His wife is Bhavnaben; a Gujarati profile gives their wedding date as 10 May 1992. The couple have two sons. Mitul holds an MBA from London, and Mohit pursued an MBA in New Zealand. The group lists Mitul, Mohit and their cousins Sneh and Monark Savani among its next generation of leaders.

The family has chosen to share its own milestones with its extended family of daughters. In December 2016, Mitul Savani married at the same mass ceremony as 236 fatherless brides. In December 2022, his cousins Sneh and Monark did the same.

Becoming “Papa”

In 2008, a man close to the family died shortly before his two daughters were to marry. Accounts differ on who he was. Some reports describe a relative; Savani himself has been quoted describing an employee who died “just 12 days before he could marry off his two daughters.” Savani decided to become the girls’ foster father, performed their kanyadaan and paid for both weddings. “This is how it began,” he later said.

Individual weddings followed, then group ceremonies. Since the early 2010s the weddings have been held every December on the grounds of the PP Savani Chaitanya Vidya Sankul in Surat. By the family’s count and recent media reports, more than 5,000 daughters had married under his care by 2023–25. The brides call him “Papa”. For many of them he remains the person they turn to at festivals, childbirths and hard times.

Read about the wedding initiative

What he stands for

Across two decades of interviews, a few convictions come up again and again:

• Responsibility does not end at the mandap. “We provide not just dowry but also bear all responsibilities toward the daughter after marriage,” he said in 2022.
• A mother should not carry this alone. “It is challenging for a woman who has lost her husband to get her daughter married,” he told the Times of India.
• Every faith is welcome. Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh couples have married at the ceremonies, each by the rites of their own faith. “Through this initiative, we hope to strengthen secular values,” the group said in 2025.
• Education is the most lasting gift. The family’s schools and university give his pledges for fatherless children and the children of martyred soldiers a practical home.

Public presence

The weddings have drawn international attention. In December 2016, AFP’s report was carried by outlets including The World (PRX) and the Sydney Morning Herald. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union ministers, and spiritual leaders including Morari Bapu have attended the ceremonies. Mahesh Savani shares updates with a large following on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube under the handle @maheshsavani9.

He has also had a brief, documented period in electoral politics, from June 2021 to January 2022. It is described on the Initiatives & Projects page.