Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Prithviraj to direct and play Rajan Pillai - the Britannia Biscuit Guy

Prithviraj is to direct and play the Biscuit King Rajan Pillai , the guy from Kollam's wealthiest family the cashew nut King Janardhan Pillai son. India Today wrote -  Move over Hinduja and Swraj Paul, Rajan Pillai's here. Rajan who? Janardhana Mohandas Rajan Pillai, 41, the London-based chairman of Britannia Industries.

The web series is in Hindi. There  is  a biography  on  late  Rajan Pillai’s father, K Janardhanan Pillaiyude Jeevitham – Dhaivathintey Natakam, published by  Current Books.  on earing about the webseries announcement ,  Producers said that they have got the go ahead from Rajan's wife Nina. Nina Pillai says, "Rajan always aimed for the stars and dreamt of heading the world's largest food firm by 2020. However, the systemic flaws in India's justice system and manipulative enemies tragically cut short his life - a wound that his family and I grapple with even today. It's easy to see his rise and fall in absolutes but there was more to the man." "This is an important story which needs to be told and placed before the people's court. I am happy that Yoodlee Films is taking the mantle to humanise the story of Rajan and share it with its varied multicultural audience. And I am especially excited that someone of the calibre of Prithviraj Sukumaran is spearheading this project. I feel he has just the right artistic sensitivity to bring Rajan's life amongst the masses", she concludes.

Rajan Pillai's maternal uncle `Achani' Ravi , a cashew exporter was also producer of art ouse films of G Aravindan and Adoor. We hit it off well from our first meeting. He frankly said that the films he produced were like some one who bought a Picasso painting.  He told me a incident that happened at Rajan's funeral. He claimed that Nusli Wadia had send a man to attend the funeral and it was strange considering that Wadia through a coup took over Britannia. At that time political circles were abuzz of Chandraswamy the Godman milking Rajan Pillai with the promise to save him from extradition to Singapore ( facing financial irregularity cases). K Karunakaran the Congress stalwart and close to Pillai family was helpless as he himself was down after the ISRO spy case.

In Chennai, I attended the Britannia - Amritraj Tennis school  functions as  Nirmal Shekar , pal and sports journalist  was a friend of  Amritraj's . Rajan loved tennis and he never missed an event. He even put Amritraj's on Britannia board. Ashok Amritraj later turned producer of a Tamil film Jeans and several Hollywood films in LA.

Rajan Pillai life story is not on the lines of Vijay Mallya as seen by the public and those in Kerala, He is seen as a man who got outwitted by corporates abroad  who trapped him in cases.

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