Next-gen Birla siblings Ananya & Aryaman carved their own identities - in music & cricket
Feb 7, 2023
Credit: Mid Day
Next-gen Birla siblings Ananya & Aryaman carved their own identities - in music & cricket
Born to industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and philanthropist Neerja Birla, Aryaman and Ananya Birla have been named to the boards of Aditya Birla group companies – Grasim Industries and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. Here is more about the Birla siblings:
Credit: Mid Day
Ananya Birla
Having learnt to play the santoor at the age of eleven, 28-year-old Ananya Birla found her identity in music, becoming a singer-songwriter. She became the first Indian artist of English language to go platinum in India.
Credit: BCCL
Career as musician
Till date, Ananya’s songs have reached 350 million streams. She is the first Indian to be featured on major top 40 pop radio stations such as Sirius Hits 1 and Radio Disney.
Credit: BCCL
Bold and beautiful
Ananya released a video song Everybody’s Lost showing her bolder side, inviting criticism from the audience for ruining her family’s reputation. The song has over 25 million streams.
Credit: NC
Young entrepreneur
When she was only 17, she founded Svatantra Microfin, a financial institution which provides microfinance to women entrepreneurs in rural India. It was the first microfinance to get an NBFC-Microfinance Institution licence from the RBI.
Credit: Forbes
Women to Watch
She was included in Forbes Asia's list of 'Women to Watch Out For in 2016' for her business acumen. She was only 21 years old.
Credit: BCCL
Multi-talented
Ananya is currently shooting with Bobby Deol for the thriller series ‘The Desi Sherlock’ directed by Kunal Kohli.
Credit: Ananya Birla Instagram
Mental health
She also founded the Ananya Birla Foundation in 2020 and co-founded mental health foundation Mpower with her mother Neerja Birla. She is also working with LSE on research work for mental health in rural India.
Credit: BCCL
Not as conservative
To Vogue, she said “As the next generation of a highly conservative business family, my parents and siblings are not as conservative as the world thinks we are..”
Credit: Forbes
Aryaman Vikram Birla
Aryaman made his first-class debut with the Madhya Pradesh cricket team in the 2017-2018 Ranji Trophy. The left-handed batsman was also selected for the team of Rajasthan Royals in the 2018 IPL auction.
Credit: BCCL
Proponent of mental health
He took a sabbatical from cricket in 2019, saying he needed to prioritise his mental health. ‘I’ve felt trapped. I’ve pushed myself through all the distress…I feel I need to put my mental health above all else,” he wrote on Instagram.
Credit: BCCL
Super-exclusive club in Mumbai
At the age of 23, he turned entrepreneur by launching a super-exclusive club in Mumbai called Jolie’s, which aims to provide a networking platform for high achievers from different fields.
Credit: The Architecture Digest
Singing siblings
Not just Ananya, Aryaman is also a singer, having made his singing debut with the single “Shallow,” which was released in 2019.
Credit: BCCL
The Pawpstar Co
Inspired by his love for their pet dog ‘Spencer’, the young entrepreneur Aryaman opened The Pawpstar Co, a new-age toys and pet store for dogs, in 2021.
Credit: Aryaman Birla Facebook