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Dilip Chhabria is a renowned Indian car designer and founder of DC Designs. He is well-known for the car modifications that he has done for many celebrities, including several Bollywood actors. His cars have also featured in several Bollywood movies like Tarzan: The Wonder Car (2004), and Dilwale (2015). He is the man behind India’s first sportscar, DC Avanti.
Wiki/Biography
Dilip Chhabria was born in 1954 (age 66 years; as of 2020) in Mumbai. He belonged to an affluent family, and his father was a businessman working in the line of electronic parts manufacturing. As a kid, Dilip Chhabria used to draw cars and bikes all over the walls of his house and behind his notebooks. He decided to pursue car designing when he saw an advertisement for a design school in California. Following his dream and his love for cars, Dilip Chhabria completed his graduation in commerce and applied for Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California where he studied Transportation Design.
Physical Appearance
Eye Colour: Black
Hair Colour: Black
Family and Caste
Dilip Chhabria was born in a Sindhi-Hindu family in Mumbai.
Children
He has two children. The name of his son is Bonito Chhabria and the name of his daughter is Minica Chhabria.
Career
After completing the course of Transportation Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Chhabria joined General Motors and started working there. He quickly realized that working there would not give him the growth and opportunities that he needed to be a designer. He decided to move back to India to work in Marol, Mumbai in his father’s factory. With a team of three people, Dilip took a small space of the factory and produced a ring-shaped horn for Premier Padmini cars. This aftermarket product did wonders in the market and sold for Rs. 40 per piece. The manufacturing cost on the horn was Rs. 8 per piece, and this helped him get the boost and money he needed for his first project. In 1992, he modified his own Gypsy, and it was a success. With this success, Dilip went ahead to sign a deal with Mahindra & Mahindra where he worked on the Armada and Bolero cars. In the meantime, he was working with the company, and this led to the development of Scorpio. Dilip Chhabria thinks that Mahindra Thar is one the most customizable SUV vehicle that is available in the Indian market. The toughest project according to him was Porsche 911 because he believes that the car is perfect the way it’s designed and it’s hard to figure out whether the car needs any modifications or not.
Mahindra Thar modified by Dilip Chhabria’s DC Design
Controversies
- A six-time MLA and politician from Uttar Pradesh, Raghuraj Pratap Singh filed an FIR against Chhabria for not delivering a vehicle on order in 2016. The politician had given a contract of Rs. 1.24 crore to Dilip Chhabria in 2015 to modify an ISUZU 4500 WB van. Later, Dilip Chhabria refuted the claims saying that he had no idea about the order. Chhabria responded to this allegation and said,
His statement about us not delivering the vehicle is baseless and false. We have worked with the who’s who of the world for the past 25 years. The vehicle has been lying ready for the past seven months. We have been writing to them to collect the vehicle, but they have not responded to that.”
- On 28 December 2020, Chhabria was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch in connection with allegations of cheating and forgery made against him. According to joint commissioner of police (crime) Milind Bharambe, Chhabria used 90 DC Avanti vehicles manufactured by Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Ltd (DDCPL) for fraudulent financing by availing multiple loans averaging Rs. 42 lakhs against each. Reportedly, to get loans from Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), the company would pose as customers for their own manufactured cars, and these vehicles would later be sold to customers by fraudulent means; moreover, to get more loans, the company would register the vehicles with two or at times three RTO’s of various states. This fraudulent tactic came into the limelight after one of the customers of the DC Avanti car, who had registered his car with Tamil Nadu RTO, was challenged by the police during which the police found that the car was also registered with Haryana RTO. Later, the complainant registered a case against Chhabria in Mumbai following which the Mumbai Police arrested him.
Dilip Chhabria produced before a court in Mumbai
Car Collection
Dilip Chhabria owns a BMW X6 M, Audi R8 Spyder, Mercedes Benz S-Class, Porsche 911 Turbo S and few more cars.
Dilip Chhabria with his Mercedes Benz S-Class
Facts/Trivia
- His creative and unique approach has reached his personal life as he named his children as Bonito Chhabria (son), and Minica Chhabria (daughter).
- Dilip Chhabria was given the opportunity to work with Aston Martin when the company asked him to design their show car, Aston Martin Vantage. In 2003, James Bond Aston Martin DB-8, and since then, his designs have been appreciated on a global level.
Dilip Chhabria with an Aston Martin
- Dilip Chhabria has been associated with Bollywood industry for a very long time. He has modified the vanity vans of Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, where the actors have spent Rs. 3.5 crores each. Hrithik Roshan has also got his Mercedes-Benz V-Class van modified by Dilip Chhabria.
Shah Rukh Khan’s vanity van by DC Design
- Dilip Chhabria is fond of painting and sculpting, and he has displayed his artwork in his showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune.