Indian businessman and film producer 'Atlas' Ramchandran dies in Dubai

Renowned Indian businessman M.M. Ramachandran, popularly known as 'Atlas' Ramachandran, died in Dubai on Sunday night (October 2) after a cardiac arrest.

As per his family sources, Ramachandran, the managing director of Atlas Jewellery and a film producer, was admitted to a hospital in Dubai a few days ago. His death happened when he was trying to rebuild his business after being released from jail some years ago.

Once an international success story in the Middle East and in South India, Ramachandran's situation deteriorated in 2015 after he was detained and sentenced to three years in prison in Dubai for alleged financial fraud, particularly on bounced cheques.

The businessman faced alleged defaults of over Rs. 1,000 crores ($10 billion) to the banks, notably the Bank of Baroda. He was one of the main targets of various cases in Dubai brought by Indian and UAE-based banks, the Indian Express reported.

Ramachandran started working for Canara Bank in 1963. In 1966, he relocated to the State Bank of India to work as a probationary officer before joining the bank's subsidiary. In 1974, he began working at the Commercial Bank of Kuwait till 1987.

Ramachandran entered the gold industry in 1981 and established his first Kuwait showroom, the Atlast showroom. Everything was going fine for him. However, during the Kuwait war, Ramachandran faced a significant loss but recovered all his losses after moving his business activities to the UAE.

In 2010, he directed one Malayalam film, produced several films, and became one of the well-known advertisers in Kerala's media sector. He appeared himself in the ads for Atlas jewellery network, which earned him the nickname 'Atlas' Ramachandran.

The Atlas Group operated 42 showrooms in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and three in India during its success. The group had a revenue of Rs 8,000 crore ($80 billion) in diverse sectors in 2014 before the empire was devastated. In 2015, the situation deteriorated, and Ramchnadran was detained. He was freed from jail in 2018.

(With inputs from agencies)

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