An Indian multi-millionaire has spent £15,000 on a full-page advertisement in The Times of India’s matrimonial section to spell out just how rich he is in an attempt to find a wife.

By Dean Nelson "| Telegraph UK

Despite owning his own private plane, sprawling palace, fleet of cars and superbikes, retired travel agency tycoon Dinshah Vimadalal has found it difficult to find a partner since his wife died three years ago in a car accident.

Since his ad appeared in the paper’s Mumbai edition on Sunday, his offer has been the talk of the the Indian city.

According to his advertisement, he is looking for a slim, childless woman under 40 to share his sprawling, self-built hacienda in Hermosillo, Mexico, a 45 minute flight by his private turboprop from Tuscon, Arizona.

"You must speak English and have done your basic schooling. I don’t care how much money you have or don’t have … you should have a sense of adventure and the desire to live an exciting life."

"[You should] be no older than 40 and slim. And please don’t be a vegetarian. If you are divorced it doesn’t matter, but definitely no children. I am much older than 40 but am very young at heart, very young physically, very active and any girl older than 40 would have a tough time keeping up with my active lifestyle," he said.

At age 69 and a heavy smoker, he nonetheless describes himself as an adventurer who has flown the Atlantic, drives his high performance motorbike at speeds of 130mph, and a former schoolboy athletics champion who represented India overseas.

He left Mumbai in 1967 to fulfil his dream of becoming a pilot in Canada, and later moved to Los Angeles where he set up a travel agency business and met his wife.

Since her death, his luxury lifestyle has become meaningless to him and he is now desperate to find someone to share it with, he said.

He told The Telegraph he had searched in the US, Mexico, and online, but had found only a "bunch of idiots."

In disappointment he returned home to find his bride in Mumbai.

"The biggest problem I have is my age against the age of the girl I want. I’m 69 and I’m looking for a girl no more than 40. My wife was 14 years younger than me."

Since his ad was published in Sunday, he has ‘interviewed’ 20 potential brides, but "there have been no serious possibilities."

"Two or three were very sweet, nice people, but I place a lot of emphasis on the figure. I don’t mind if the face is not pretty but I like a slim figure and the girls who have been very nice had big fat bottoms. I don’t like that."

Matrimonial ads are the life blood of Indian newspapers and a respectable way for families to negotiate the complex caste, class, education and wealth barriers to arrange their children’s marriages.

So far Mr Vimadalal’s ad has had more replies from television stations than women who might meet his strict criteria. Will he find the slim, non-veg woman of his dreams? "I’m pessimistic," he said.