Startup funding fever infects South Indian film industry too

Superstar Nayanthara and director Vignesh Shivan invest in Chennai-based Chai Waale

Following the footsteps of Bollywood celebrities, South Indian cinema fraternity too seems to be moving towards the startup ecosystem as investors.

South Indian ‘lady superstar’ Nayanthara and director Vignesh Shivan have invested an undisclosed amount in Chennai-based beverage startup Chai Waale. The investment by the two celebrities was part of a fresh funding of Rs 5 crore raised by the company from a group of angel investors. This comes close to the heels of South Indian actress Kajal Aggarwal investing an undisclosed amount to pick up a 15 per cent stake in Mumbai-based gaming company OKIE Gaming. Nayanthara is the highest-paid South Indian actress at the moment, while Shivan is the director of several hit films like Podaa Podi and Naanum Rowdydhaan.

“You cannot say they are following Bollywood. It may be a different investment option. They must have done their homework in terms of getting good returns and all,” said Taran Adarsh, film analyst.

Investing in startups is a trend in Bollywood with many major celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit, John Abraham, Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor putting money in prominent enterprises.

According to the media reports, in 2020 alone, Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif had invested an undisclosed amount in Nykaa, while Anushka Sharma invested Rs 50 lakh in Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Digit Insurance, Deepika Padukone bet on edtech startup FrontRow, Suniel Shetty on the edtech business of Sai Estate Consultants and Sonu Sood on Spice Money, which is a subsidiary company of DiGiSPICE Technologies.

Other South Indian celebrities known for backing startups include actress Taapsee Pannu, who owns an event management company by the name of The Wedding Factory, Rana Daggubati, who runs a talent management company called CAA Kwan and Tamannah, who introduced her jewelry brand called Wite & Gold.

The current group of angel investors who participated in the current round in Chai Waale include Sunil Kumar Singhvi, Managing Partner of South Handlooms, Sunil Sethia, Executive director of BNI–Chennai, UNI-M Network, Manish Mardia (a chartered accountant) and a Mumbai-based angel network. Additionally, private organisations such as Unlisted Kart LLP (online trading platform of unlisted shares) from Bangalore and Conscience Multi Family office based out of Chennai were among other investors who played a major role in the current round of funding.

Early this year, Chai Waale had secured a funding of Rs 1.75 crore from a slew of angel investors. “Around 80 per cent of the current funding will be utilised in physical store expansion. We aim to have 35 fully functioning stores by next year. Rest of the funds will be earmarked for marketing, expansion of back-end systems; managerial team,” said Vidur Maheswari, Founder, Chai Waale. The home-grown QSR brand is planning to set shop in places with high footfalls including metro stations and malls.