RIP Ratan Tata: How the trailblazing industrialist got his revenge from Ford

On October 9, India lost one of its tallest industry titans. Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group, breathed his last on Wednesday night at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital. Tata not only scripted history in terms of many firsts but also had one of the greatest comeback stories in the corporate world.

The epic Tata versus Ford saga has made it to the annals of corporate history. In the June of 2008, Ratan Tata made one of the biggest acquisitions in the automobile sector by acquiring Ford's luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover. Not only is this one of the biggest automobile acquisitions, it is also a story of a millionaire's sweet revenge that could be a great movie script.

Here's how the epic Tata vs Ford saga unfolded:

In the late 1990s, Tata Motors known as Telco or Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co was finding it hard to make it big with its newly launched car Tata Indica. Making it big with Tata Indica was a personal dream of Ratan Tata as it could make Tata Motors a big player in India's automobile sector.

The route to make it big was far from an easy one for Tata as the Indica opened to poor reception as the country's car industry was going through challenging times.

The group's car business wasn't doing well and Tata was new in the car business. Due to this, he decided to sell the passenger car segment of TaMo, and Ford was interested to buy this segment. In 1999, Tata along with his team travelled to Detroit for a meeting with Ford executives to discuss the sale of Tata Motors' passenger car vertical.  

The meeting, however, did not go as planned. Ford executives ridiculed Tata, with one of them even saying: "Why did you enter the car business? You don't know anything about it. It will be a favour if we buy your car division."

This deeply hurt Tata and his team and they returned to India without pursuing the deal further.

Over the next few years, Tata worked on all engines (no, pun intended) to improve the sales of Indica and streamline operations at TaMo. Tata Indica gradually became a hit among Indian carbuyers due to its affordability and it being the first diesel hatchback in the Indian car market.

Nine years later, Tata found just the opportunity to strike back. In 2008, Ford found itself in the throes of financial troubles, thanks to the global recession and decided to sell its luxury car brand -- Jaguar Land Rover. The tables had turned as Tata Motors acquired Jaguar Land Rover from Ford at $2.3 billion.

The sale of Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Motors came as a huge relief to Ford, which at the time, was looking to divest its non-core assets but was also seen a comeback moment for Tata.