Mumbai:
It's the sort of family feud that, in the 80s, gifted Bollywood an entire sub-genre.
Only this one hit the national real-life box office in 2002, when the Patriach of India's most powerful business family died. What had been whispers of rivalry were suddenly deafening, shouted loudest and most often by the two heirs themselves. Anil and Mukesh Ambani were at war.
And in June 2005, the split was formal, with a demerger designed with the help of their mother, Kokilaben.
Mukesh got control of the flagship firm that held the petrochemicals and oil and gas businesses. Anil got Telecom, Power, Financial Services and Entertainment. But the settlement didn't end the bitterness.
The current battle is over gas that Mukesh's RIL extracts from the Krishna-Godavari Basin block off the coast of Andhra Pradesh. When Reliance originally struck gas here seven years ago, it was among the world's biggest gas finds, and Reliance was one big happy family.
After Dhirubhai Ambani's death, and the split wide open, the gas dispute rose to gigantic proportions. Under the demerger pact, Mukesh had agreed to supply a part of gas from this Krishna-Godavari basin field to Anil, for his Dadri power plant - at a price of 2.34 dollars per unit. But the government later approved a formula that valued the gas at a 44% higher price of 4.2 dollars. Mukesh wanted the higher price, unacceptable to Anil.
In a series of front-page newspaper advertisements, Anil slammed his brother and the government. Anil accused Mukesh's Reliance of inflating the costs of the project, of keeping the output artificially low, and of charging a high price to make super-normal profits. Both brothers took to hectic lobbying among politicians.
And so from boardrooms and courts, the battle spilled into Parliament. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said, "We are not interested in the dispute between Ambani brothers, but we are interested in the gas that is a national asset."
But should Parliament be mediating a corporate battle at all? Interestingly, Anil Ambani, who first accused the government of batting for Mukesh, has quoted the Prime Minister in his attempt at reconciliation.
On Sunday, in a public note in which he speaks of his "love and affection" for his brother, Anil says, "The Prime Minister had wished that two brothers come together in national interest." Mukesh, rejecting that olive branch, has retaliated that this is a business battle, not a personal one.
With a combined net worth of over 31 billion dollars, the Ambani brothers have become a headache for the government. If it intervenes, it's accused of political bias. If it doesn't, the very public battle continues: one that many say is damaging India Inc's interests and image, both at home and abroad.