Review of 'Kitnay Aadmi Thay?' Completely Useless Bollywood Trivia

Disclaimer : Diptakirti, the author of KAT (Kitnay Aadmi Thay?) is a friend. Bollywood & trivia has taken up a greater part of my life. Will try to keep the review unbiased.
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If you have a passing interest in Bollywood, or trivia, or preferably both then you're sincerely better off reading or ordering the book right now than going through this review. 

KAT is a Bollywood fan's wet dream come true. Like any blockbuster worth its salt it takes you by surprise with the depth of research in its very first chapter on opening credits over the years. My sister still has a smirk on her face as she could guess Taare Zameen Par (TZP), Kuch Na Kaho and Tanu Weds Manu to my meagre single recollection of TZP, as deserving candidates in this category.

The entire book is divided into similar chapters which at first glance don't seem to be following much of a plot, but as you breeze through the pages you realize you're a part of a potboiler, cleverly wrapped with the usual trappings of a Bollywood movie "jisme action hai, romance hai, suspense hai".

I'm getting this immense urge to discuss the different chapters, lists and information nuggets (like the Big B was called Munna by his parents) but will refrain from doing so at it'll be like giving away clues of a murder mystery. Just take it from me that you will be continuously trying to predict the next movie, star, date and theme that Dipta is discussing.

All right, temptation, I lose. Sample these 3 instances:

• List of movies that were named after songs from other movies. Sounds simple? Now he goes on to compare the differences in years of release of the original movie containing the song and the movie named after the song (e.g. Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006) released 30 years after Chalte Chalte which had the song Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna)
• An entire chapter on the depiction of Parsis in Bollywood, and the list goes far beyond Being Cyrus (which apparently had a Parsi director - Homi Adjania & co-screenwriter - Kersi Khambatta)
• Did you know there are (at least) 7 Bollywood movies remade or inspired from the Godfather series? Try guessing beyond Sarkar, and when you give up look at the bottom of the post for the answers.

You will still come across situations where you'll feel some of the lists are incomplete and you'll feel superior to the author for having missed some entries in certain lists, but he's cleverly clearly mentioned at the very beginning that not all the lists are complete and one of the primary purpose of the book is to increase the enjoyment by finishing these lists ourselves. However, typos I'm assuming are not covered under this so I take immense enjoyment in pointing out an error from Page 16 - 2nd paragraph, 1st line - "A list of film titles that went on to become songs in other films" should be "A list of film titles that took its name from songs in other films". Also, page 186, 3rd paragraph 3rd line "And thus was born probably the most famous human-best friend combo..." which I feel should read "And thus was born probably the most famous human-beast friend combo..."

Just like in his previous (and first book) - Cricket he keeps the audience engrossed with one tidbit after another and constantly challenges you. Also, I'm glad that he maintains his language which is elegant yet simple and never pretentious. It's in that perfect zone where you feel like the author is your friend, well spoken and intelligent, but never condescending, and always trying to be helpful rather than show off his immense knowledge.

The book is great, but has it's frailties, particularly in the form of the author's biases, and I guess gives a more genuine feel to it. It's clear from the very beginning that . He makes no bones about his obsession with Amitabh Bachchan, Sholay & Madhuri Dixit but you don't hold that as a grudge against him because the author is not trying to portray himself as a neutral, spectacle-wearing studious disciple of cinema, but a cheering, whistling, dancing fan. You kind of forgive him for not realizing that the greatest star that Bollywood ever produced was actually born in 1965 in New Delhi to Taj Mohammad Khan & Lateef Fatima.

This is one book I am looking forward to paying extra luggage fees to take with me and keep on my bookshelf.

Go buy.

Answer to the Godfather question: Dharmatma, Dayavan, Nayakan, Atank Hi Atank, Virasat, Rajneeti & Sarkar.

Yours Gratefully

[DISCLAIMER: Personal & long post]

Tomorrow I will be walking down Ryan Field along with my classmates at Kellogg to collect my MBA degree. One of the 150,000 odd US students to do so this year. A part of a much larger number of Indians across the world. No big deal. True. But it brings to an end a chapter that started nine years back. A chapter from my story, and it will remain incomplete without this post.

It was during my second year at college, I was doing my B. Com or undergraduate in Business as they refer to it in other parts of the world, that I wanted to do an MBA. A normal career choice for a moderately bright student like myself. For those not acquainted with the Indian B-school system, at least in the mid-2000s, almost the entire batch of the top schools joined straight from college with no prior work experience. This means that the one annual test day, taken by ~150,000 students then (more than ~200,000 now) pretty much sealed your fate for the year. The top B-schools - the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) had around 3000 seats. If you do the math only 2% of the test takers had a chance of making it.

I started with my MBA preparations during my final year of college and was consistently performing among the top 1%-3%. I knew that with further practice unless I messed things up on the D-Day I had a fair shot at cracking it. It was the third Sunday of November in 2004 and I went to Presidency College, Kolkata for my test. I do not recollect the exact  details but I remember coming out of the exam and calling my parents from a PCO (Public Call Office) booth and telling them it could go either way. The results came out in a month's time and though I had performed better than 95% of the test-takers, it wasn't good enough for an interview call from any of the 6 IIMs.

This is where I will try to but won't do justice to the role my parents played in providing the support and confidence in me. First, it's almost taken for granted that all good Indian students will pursue engineering right after school, whereas I, in spite of always being a good student at school and doing quite well in my school final exams decided to take up Commerce. Just because I wanted to. There was tremendous societal pressure on my parents to "show me the right path" but they protected me from all the noise and asked me to do whatever I wanted, with the confidence that they're with me. This was 3 years prior to the MBA episode. This time around, first there was the setback that I wasn't going to the premier B-Schools. Second, no "good student" worth his/her salt thinks of not doing his/her Masters before joining the workforce. It was during this time that Google, just starting their operations in India, came to our campus. And I made it. Goggles? Web Page? Am I mad? And my parents were being foolish in letting a twenty-one year old take the decisions of his own life. Once again, all they told me was they believed in me and would support me in any decision I took. Even if that meant joining a company with a funny name and brightly-colored child like logo. Gulu (Mom, yeah I know silly!) & Baban (Dad) - I know today you are more excited and happy than I am and so I wanted to congratulate you on the MBA. I have perhaps never mentioned it in a public forum, but  - thank you for being by my side, always. Love you. And love you too MLS (my little sister) for being there.

Google on the other hand I have never shied away from showing my love for, in a very vocal fashion. It was as if Google took over my guardianship from my parents. I can't thank everyone who put their faith in me while at Google - giving me responsibilities far bigger than what my years or experience would have made seem prudent. I was most fortunate to have managers who were far more of mentors than bosses like Neel, Ashish, Sundar, Aliza and Sridhar. Also, a special mention to Shailesh, a fellow Kellogg alum and my manager at Google who instilled the confidence in me to go big. 

Then there were the friends, Anal, Sreejita, Manan, Saurabh, Dushyant, Savio, Arnab and many others who not only believed in me but also spent hours guiding me through the application process, preparing me for the MBA interviews and going over multiple iterations of the essays. And then there was Boudhayan who timed his move to Chicago to perfection and played the greatest host for the year.

December 2010 I received the call from Kellogg, congratulating me on my admission. The past year deserves an entire post and more for itself, all I will say for now is that the MBA was worth every penny of the many I spent on it.

Finally this story will remain irrelevant without the person who sacrificed everything for it. If taking the risk of tying the knot just a few months after her twenty-second birthday was not enough, she actually gave up everything she had - her city she had always lived in, her parents who lived in the same city,  her friends, her lifetime savings and her most cherished job, to fly out with me to an unknown country, without a job or purpose. Just to fulfill my dreams. My newly acquired MBA skills tell me she'll make for a pretty lousy businesswoman working on blind faith and love. Something else tells me I'm covered, for life.  Thanks for everything Veni.

The Kellogg India Business Conference

The following article was published in my Financial Times blog today. Reproducing without any edits.


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This past weekend we hosted the 18th annual Kellogg India Business Conference. The conference, the first one was held in 1995, is one of the most prominent conferences organised by the student body and attracts some of the most accomplished men and women from corporate India and beyond.

Opportunities Take Flight

Once again this year we had a wide gamut of Indian achievers from a variety of fields including the internet, enterprise software, venture capital, consumer packaged goods and not-for-profit. The conference started early on Saturday morning and was kicked off by a most riveting welcome address by one of Kellogg’s favourite professors – Mohanbir Sawhney.

Prof Sawhney delivering the welcome address

This was followed by a keynote address by Param Uberoi, the chairman of Pernod Ricard, south Asia who retraced his steps from his initial days in the beverage industry and outlined how the market has grown and matured drastically over the years. He regaled the crowd with plenty of anecdotes and insightful observations about not only the beverage industry but also the overall landscape of business in India.

Mr. Uberoi delivering the opening keynote address

This was followed by a panel discussion on financial services in India called “Fuelling a Billion Aspirations”, which was moderated by Navin Chopra. It included Kellogg alumni Rahul Khanna, the managing director of Canaan Partners, India and Jasjit Mangat, director, investments, Omidyar Network India Advisors, as well as K B Chandrasekar, the founder and chief executive of Asia Bridge Capital and Amitabh Chaudhry, the managing director and chief executive of HDFC Standard Life.

A wide variety of subjects were discussed including the exit strategies of venture capitalists in Indian start-ups and how and when should Indians working overseas decide to return to their home country.

The finance panel in progress

After the panel discussion the audience was enthralled by a passionate speech from Abraham George, the founder and chairman of The George Foundation, who has been working hard for many years to try to improve the lot of the underprivileged in India. He moved the assembled audience with his statistics about the real impact of poverty in India and discussed various ways in which everyone can make a difference and contribute towards a brighter, more egalitarian future for the nation.

Abraham George delivering his keynote speech

The afternoon session started with the social innovation competition that saw four student teams, three from Kellogg and one from NYU’s Stern School of Business, present their ideas about solving certain issues in India. These ranged from insurance and the availability of seeds, to iron-rich nutritional biscuits for mothers to tackle the problem of iron deficiency in Indian women.

Further ideas were investing in various kinds of skill development among the large population through a modified private equity fund and shared tractors, along the lines of the car sharing business model in the west. After an hour of intense presentation and gruelling question and answer sessions with the jury of professors and speakers at the conference, UpSkill Capital won first prize, followed by iNsure. They received $10,000 and $5,000 respectively as a team and they plan to invest these amounts in their venture ideas and bring them to fruition.

UpSkill Capital - the winning team in the Social Innovation Competition

Bharat Goenka, co-founder and managing director of Tally Solutions delivered the next keynote speech and won over the audience with his stories of the hurdles he initially faced before the success of one of India’s best known software brands. He also made a strong impact by firstly highlighting the issues that India faces as a country today, but also pointing out that nevertheless it is poised to take off as the biggest economic superpower in the coming years.

Bharat Goenka delivering his keynote speech

The final session of the conference was a panel discussion on entrepreneurship in India which was moderated by Rashmi Bansal, the best-selling author of entrepreneurial stories (Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish). The panel consisted of some of the young achievers of online India – Anupam Mittal, the founder and chief executive of People Group (the parent company of brands such as shaadi.com, makaan.com etc) and Neetu Bhatia co-founder, chairman and chief executive of KyaZoonga.

Bharat Goenka was also on the panel and discussed the opportunities available to those who want to make a start in the world of Indian entrepreneurship. Lots of personal experiences were shared by the panelists and by the end of the session it seemed as if many in the audience were motivated to move back to India and start off on their own!

Rashmi Bansal moderating the entrepreneurship panel

The Entrepreneurship Panel in progress

The highly energetic and inspiring day was brought to a close by a well-attended networking session with the students and other members of the audience getting to spend some quality time with the various speakers and panelists.

And finally a note of thanks to the conference leadership committee who worked very hard for months to put it together and deliver a most engaging event.

The India Business Conference Leadership Team