His two pastimes had been cricket and playing the sitar. In a 2014 interview with NDTV he admitted that he was no longer pursuing his playing of the sitar.
During 2014, Kotak almost doubled his wealth as shares of his Kotak Mahindra Bank hit an all-time high after he sealed a $2.4 billion deal in November 2014 for rival ING Vysya Bank, partly owned by Dutch financial services group ING.