Thousands of people paid their last respects on Thursday to Ratan Tata — one of India’s most influential business leaders — in the country’s financial capital ahead of a state funeral later in the day. The veteran industrialist, former chairman of Tata Group, a $100 billion conglomerate, died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday night at the age of 86.

Tata’s body was taken Thursday to Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, where the public, industrialists, state officials and some of India’s top celebrities lined up to pay their final respects to a man seen by many as an industry legend and icon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Tata as a visionary leader and a compassionate and extraordinary human being.

Photos: Instagram via Ratan Tata, TH archives.

Photo: UNKNOWN

Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, U.S. with Ratan Tata at "Moving to the market: Sustaining reforms in India and Asia" event in New Delhi on March 05, 1997. PHOTO: THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Photo: UNKNOWN

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata addressing a press meet after TISCO board meeting in Bombay, June 05, 1995. PHOTO: THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Photo: KAMAL NARANG

(File Photo)Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Anand Sharma during the Breakfast Meeting with Co-Chairs of India-UK CEOs Forum with Ratan Tata ,Former TATA group Chief,Chanda D Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank and Adi Godrej, President of CII and Chairman of Godrej Group ,Peter Sands, Group CEO of Standard Chartered and Bharti Airtel Ltd. Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal(L), New Delhi, 2013.

Photo: KKK

(File photo) Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) takes a drink as Chairman Ratan Tata looks on during the inauguration.

Photo: SANDEEP SAXENA

(File photo) Anand Sharma (L) meeting Former Chairman of Tata group Ratan Tata and Goh Choon Phong (right), CEO, Singapore International Airlines a day after the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) permitted Tata-Singapore Airlines to start a full-service carrier in India, in New Delhi October 25, 2013.

Photo: SOMASHEKARA GRN

(File photo)Tony Fernandes (L), CEO, Air Asia Group and Ratan Tata, Former Chairman, Tata Sons at a press conference to celebrate the launch of AirAsia India, in Bangalore on July 3, 2014.

Late JRD Tata and Ratan Tata at the launch celebration of the TATA ESTATE at the Pune plant.

Ratan Tata at the launch of the Tata Nano

Remembering JRD Tata

Ratan Tata along with his younger brother Jimmy Tata.

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Young Ratan Tata in Los Angeles