The autobiography of Dr Subhash Chandra, chairman, Essel Group and Zee, The Z Factor: My Journey As The Wrong Man at the Right Time, was launched on Wednesday at a high-powered function at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official residence in 7 Race Course Road.
In attendance were three cabinet ministers - Manohar Parrikar, Suresh Prabhu and Mahesh Sharma. Senior Congressman Sushil Shinde and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh were also there.
Providing the glamour quotient were Bollywood stars Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher and director Madhur Bhandarkar.
Several of India's leading media entrepreneurs and journalists – Mammen Mathew of Malayalam Manorama, Aroon Purie of India Today Group, Rajat Sharma, whose television career began with Aap ki Adalat on Zee TV in 1994, Anant Goenka of Indian Express, and MJ Akbar – were also there.
Felicitating Dr Chandra on his autobiography, co-written with journalist Pranjal Sharma, the prime minister said: "It takes courage to write an autobiography, even more so when one is so young."
Modi also recalled his association with Dr Chandra's father, Nand Kishore Goenka, as a young political activist in Hissar, when he would frequent the charitable institutions set up by the latter.
The PM also spoke about Dr Chandra's support for Ekal Vidyalaya, an NGO that runs around 52,000 single-teacher schools in remote corners of India.
In his speech, Dr Chandra spoke about his extraordinary journey, starting out as a young boy of 17 from Hissar in Haryana, with just Rs 17 in his pocket, who went on to build a media empire.
"As a young boy of 6, I remember demanding a Fiat car from my father; my father placated me then. But at the age of 21, I bought a Fiat car on my own, a second-hand one," he recounted.
The Z Factor is a fast-paced, almost racy read. Beginning from his childhood in the small town of Adampur (Punjab), Dr Chandra tells the story of how a financial crisis eroded most of the family's wealth while he was in his teens, forcing him to take over the reins of their grains business.
The narrative continues with Dr Chandra not just succeeding in reviving the business and repaying the family debts, but also growing the business and diversifying into packaging and later broadcasting and family entertainment destinations (EsselWorld).
The book is extraordinarily candid, even gossipy. There are accounts of Dr Chandra's childhood shenanigans, colourful inside anecdotes about his skirmishes with the rich and the powerful from the world of politics and business (everyone from Dhirendra Brahmachari to Indira Gandhi to the Ambanis), the inside story of some of the big developments and controversies of our times in the fields of cricket, media, politics and entertainment.
Dr Chandra does not shy away from giving his side of the story in almost every controversy he has been in the thick of - the ugly spat with BCCI and ESPN-Star TV over cricket telecast rights and his sense of grievance over the still-raging Jindal Steel bribery controversy.
