How a Chennai journalist’s book inspired ‘Made in India: A Titan Story’

This web series has a connection to Chennai; It is based on city journalist Vinay Kamath’s book ‘Titan: Inside India’s Most Successful Consumer Brand’. an old one Hindu Business Line Journalist Vinay is happy with the positive response to the series, which brings to the screen the events he has covered for years. “I was touched by the emotions that poured out for him,” he says, “It was quite an eye-opener. The story of innovation and overcoming challenges, the period setting interspersed with old Hindi songs, went down well with the audience.”

Vinay’s book, published in December 2018, was the culmination of three years of work, alongside the bulk of interviews and writings from his regular work as a journalist. Hindu Business Line. “Titan is a well-researched company and many B-school case studies have documented this. But my book was put together based on interviews with the people who built Titan. Since it was all original material, it took time,” he recalls.

Naseeruddin Shah and Jim Sarbh still from the series | Photo Credit: Amazon MX Player

According to the journalist, the most interesting narrative of the Titan story was how it was established despite everything. “Neither of the co-founders, Xerxes Desai and Anil Manchanda, were engineers. But both of them had the courage to enter a high-precision engineering sector, knowing that they could recruit talent. There were many milestones in the establishment of the company; a large business group like the Tatas could not enter watchmaking as it was divided into the public sector and small-scale sector due to the restrictions of the old MRTP Act. Titan’s founding was also helped by: Iravatham, an IAS officer of the TN cadre, who was also a famous epigrapher Mahadevan says many serendipitous events came together in the making of Titan, says producers Sunil Bohra and Prabhleen Sandhu of Supreme Pictures approached the publisher (Hachette).

Vinay himself remembers the excitement when the watches were first launched in India. “In 1989, I first met Xerxes Desai, who was introduced by the then Chairman AL Mudaliar, TIDCO’s candidate for the company’s Chairman. Vinay has tracked Titan’s progress over the years, so he was in an ideal position to chronicle its journey. “And… it wasn’t all success. While the watches were successful in India, their launch in Europe bombed badly.”

There are many inspiring scenes in the series that viewers connect with, and Vinay, as a viewer, feels that the scenes bring these moments to life in a way that only the visual medium can. “For example, when JRD Tata was turned down by the Swiss watchmaker saying he couldn’t handle the Indians’ high watchmaking technology, or when he told Xerxes Desai he wouldn’t wear a watch until the Tatas made one and took the whole team to a concert, with JRD playing Mozart’s 25th symphony as the Titan tune audiences would instantly recognize today.”

Based on real events, Made in India: A Titan Story can lead to more business and feel-good stories reaching streaming platforms. “It is quite different from what is usually offered on OTT platforms. It is this uniqueness that has made the series a favorite with viewers.” Maybe that’s why the show resonates with people; proved that making a watch can be as gripping as the rise of a gangster in a crime drama.