Reputed businessman and film producer MM Ramachandran, who was popularly known as Atlas Ramachandran, passed away in Dubai on Sunday at the age of 80.
Three days earlier, Ramachandran was admitted in a private hospital with an age-related illness and passed away after a cardiac arrest, Gulf News reported quoting his son-in-law Arun from the hospital.
Ramachandran is survived by his wife Indira and daughter Manju.
Who was Atlas Ramachandran?
Mathukkara Moothedath Ramachandran was born in 1942 in Kerala's Thrissur district. He started his career as a banker and later moved to Kuwait to join the Commercial Bank of Kuwait. He started his gold jewellery business Atlas in 1981. In a short span of time, Ramachandran became a household name with his eye-catching offers and famous advertisement tagline janakodikalude vishwsthasthapanam, which means trusted enterprise of millions of customers.
His business empire grew in the Gulf having over 40 branches of Atlas Jewellery stores across the region, including 19 in the UAE. Atlas Jewellery set up branches in Kuwait and Kerala as well.
During his golden era, Ramachandran eventually ventured into healthcare, movies, real estate and media.
Filmmaking
Ramachandran was passionate about films. He soon started filmmaking, acting and produced noted films like ‘Vaisali’ (1988) and ‘Sukrutham’ (1994), while acting in ‘Subhadram’ (2007), ‘Arabikkatha, Malabar Wedding, 2 Harihar Nagar’ and several others.
He produced several films like ‘Dhanam, Vasthuhara, Kauravar, Chakoram’ and ‘Innale’ and directed a film, ‘Holidays’. He was the owner of Chandrakantha films.
Arrest and release
The well-respected businessman enjoyed celebrity status as a film producer, actor and brand ambassador before he hit the headlines in 2015 with multiple loan default cases worth Dh550 million in the UAE.
A court had sentenced him to three years in prison after he was found guilty of issuing two bounced cheques to two banks as security. In an interview with The New Indian Express earlier, Ramachandran had said that his former managers had duped him, which led to his arrest and sentence.
Ramachandran was released in 2018 and had pledged to repay all his creditors. Since then, he is believed to have been working on the repayment plan.
The embattled business magnate was working on opening a new jewellery outlet, Gulf News reported quoting family sources.
Meanwhile, industrialists mourned the death of the business doyen. Ramachandran had inspired a number of people with his journey, starting from humble beginnings and achieving success, Moneycontrol quoted well-known industrialist from Kerala Kochuseph Chittilappilly as saying.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
