THE Z FACTOR
My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time
Subhash Chandra (with Pranjal Sharma)
HarperCollins
281 pages; Rs 475
Mr Chandra gave us (BusinessWorld magazine) ten minutes, which stretched to 30 in a disarmingly honest interview. "We have gone wrong, we know where we have gone wrong and are taking corrective action," he said. While I was still admiring his no-defences stance, Mr Chandra waved the photographer away saying, "Iske saath mat lena, yaar, (don't photograph me with the beedi)." For a man who had lived life more or less on his own terms, this tiny bit of posturing didn't make sense.
Similar little inexplicable things niggle when you read The Z Factor, Mr Chandra's autobiography released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence last month. There are too many unexplained things. For example, when he talks about how Rajat Sharma (now CEO of India TV) left him, the story is hazy. When talking of Zee's attempts to get into cricket broadcasting, he defends Jagmohan Dalmia, then International Cricket Council chief, on one page and attacks him on the next one. Why is the book not as direct and clear as Mr Chandra, 65, is when you meet him?
"In the first version there was no holding back. But because of the size of the book and lawyers' advice, it was watered down," Mr Chandra explained in a short chat about the book. This, then, is the biggest flaw in an otherwise fascinating read about risks well-taken and a life well-lived.
By any standard, Mr Chandra's journey from an 18-year-old who turned around the family business of processing food grain to the progenitor of an eclectic $3 billion empire is fascinating. Through the book his guts, vision and can-do spirit is apparent. If he had an idea, he was willing to do anything, meet anyone to figure what to do to implement it. And as luck would have it, he had many ideas. He is a restless, serial entrepreneur for whom the high of setting up a new business is the game - running the business doesn't seem to interest him.
In the process Mr Chandra set up, with his brothers, India's first private TV firm (Zee), a leisure park (Esselworld), the first electronic lottery company (Playwin), the first direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting operation (Dish TV), the first flexi-packaging unit in India (Essel Propack) and so on. Of the group's annual top line of Rs 19,324 crore, almost half comes from media.
There are some juicy bits - on the cash he paid Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari who arranged his meeting with Rajiv Gandhi. That led to the Russians choosing him along with another firm for rice exports, a big deal in those days (1980-81). When the Gandhis came to know, at a midnight meeting with Mr Chandra sometime in 1982, that Brahmachari had been taking money from him, they cut Brahmachari off.
Then there is the story, much later, of his bust-up with the Congress. In 2012, Congress Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal accused Zee News editors of demanding a bribe for going easy on their coverage of his alleged involvement in the coal scam. Mr Chandra was named in the First Information Report filed with the police and grilled for hours. "This was an unjust act of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) and in response, I personally supported Narendra Modi's campaign for prime ministership," says Mr Chandra in the book.
There are lots of such interesting stories. But, there are three issues with the book besides the haziness mentioned earlier.
One, there is very little contextualising of events. The seventies and eighties were a terrible time to do business - the licensing and inspector raj were at their peak and the whole idea of making money was considered anti-social. How on earth did a small-town boy with very little education and a conservative family break through? This comes across in small bits, but it is not as clear in some of the big moments of the book.
Two, the chapters jump from one place to another without any apparent order. Within the same chapter there is talk of something that happened in the mid-90s and then somewhere in 2004 or 2007. Couldn't someone, ideally an editor, have organised the material better?
Three, it is a very one-sided book. It is bound to be, because it is an autobiography. But Mr Chandra's support for and against foreign direct investment based on where Zee was placed, his digs about American companies, about Rupert Murdoch and (the then) News Corporation are one version of the story. As an observer you wish for a more rounded version of events.
My Journey as the Wrong Man at the Right Time
Subhash Chandra (with Pranjal Sharma)
HarperCollins
281 pages; Rs 475
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Subhash Chandra was smoking a beedi the first time I met him (those were the days when you could smoke anywhere). This was in 2000, just after Kaun Banega Crorepati had turned erstwhile partner Star India's fortunes. The Zee stock was being hammered, scores of senior managers had left and Zee had earned (rightly so) the reputation of being a merry-go-around for chief executive officers (CEOs).
Mr Chandra gave us (BusinessWorld magazine) ten minutes, which stretched to 30 in a disarmingly honest interview. "We have gone wrong, we know where we have gone wrong and are taking corrective action," he said. While I was still admiring his no-defences stance, Mr Chandra waved the photographer away saying, "Iske saath mat lena, yaar, (don't photograph me with the beedi)." For a man who had lived life more or less on his own terms, this tiny bit of posturing didn't make sense.
Similar little inexplicable things niggle when you read The Z Factor, Mr Chandra's autobiography released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence last month. There are too many unexplained things. For example, when he talks about how Rajat Sharma (now CEO of India TV) left him, the story is hazy. When talking of Zee's attempts to get into cricket broadcasting, he defends Jagmohan Dalmia, then International Cricket Council chief, on one page and attacks him on the next one. Why is the book not as direct and clear as Mr Chandra, 65, is when you meet him?
"In the first version there was no holding back. But because of the size of the book and lawyers' advice, it was watered down," Mr Chandra explained in a short chat about the book. This, then, is the biggest flaw in an otherwise fascinating read about risks well-taken and a life well-lived.
By any standard, Mr Chandra's journey from an 18-year-old who turned around the family business of processing food grain to the progenitor of an eclectic $3 billion empire is fascinating. Through the book his guts, vision and can-do spirit is apparent. If he had an idea, he was willing to do anything, meet anyone to figure what to do to implement it. And as luck would have it, he had many ideas. He is a restless, serial entrepreneur for whom the high of setting up a new business is the game - running the business doesn't seem to interest him.
In the process Mr Chandra set up, with his brothers, India's first private TV firm (Zee), a leisure park (Esselworld), the first electronic lottery company (Playwin), the first direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting operation (Dish TV), the first flexi-packaging unit in India (Essel Propack) and so on. Of the group's annual top line of Rs 19,324 crore, almost half comes from media.
There are some juicy bits - on the cash he paid Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari who arranged his meeting with Rajiv Gandhi. That led to the Russians choosing him along with another firm for rice exports, a big deal in those days (1980-81). When the Gandhis came to know, at a midnight meeting with Mr Chandra sometime in 1982, that Brahmachari had been taking money from him, they cut Brahmachari off.
Then there is the story, much later, of his bust-up with the Congress. In 2012, Congress Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal accused Zee News editors of demanding a bribe for going easy on their coverage of his alleged involvement in the coal scam. Mr Chandra was named in the First Information Report filed with the police and grilled for hours. "This was an unjust act of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) and in response, I personally supported Narendra Modi's campaign for prime ministership," says Mr Chandra in the book.
There are lots of such interesting stories. But, there are three issues with the book besides the haziness mentioned earlier.
One, there is very little contextualising of events. The seventies and eighties were a terrible time to do business - the licensing and inspector raj were at their peak and the whole idea of making money was considered anti-social. How on earth did a small-town boy with very little education and a conservative family break through? This comes across in small bits, but it is not as clear in some of the big moments of the book.
Two, the chapters jump from one place to another without any apparent order. Within the same chapter there is talk of something that happened in the mid-90s and then somewhere in 2004 or 2007. Couldn't someone, ideally an editor, have organised the material better?
Three, it is a very one-sided book. It is bound to be, because it is an autobiography. But Mr Chandra's support for and against foreign direct investment based on where Zee was placed, his digs about American companies, about Rupert Murdoch and (the then) News Corporation are one version of the story. As an observer you wish for a more rounded version of events.