New Delhi: After a five-year delay, Netflix Wednesday released the fourth and final episode of the documentary series Bad Boy Billionaires: India. The delay was due to a legal battle between B. Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam Computer Services and the streaming platform after Raju alleged that the series included ‘half-truths’ that would damage his reputation and affect his ongoing legal appeals.
The new episode, titled ‘Riding the Tiger’, centres on Raju, dubbed the ‘poster boy of Hyderabad’, and the ‘living Gandhi of Hyderabad’, who was at the centre of the financial misconduct at Satyam, which led to one of India’s most significant corporate fraud cases, amounting to $1.5 billion in 2009.
The first three episodes conducted investigative profiles on Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Subrata Roy in the anthology series, which debuted in October 2020. Raju’s petition, however, halted the distribution of the Raju episode. A Hyderabad civil court granted an interim stay order in September 2020 after Raju’s plea.
Fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi had also approached the Delhi High Court to stop the screening of the episode based on him. But the court dismissed his petition.
The title of the latest episode is a reference to a phrase that Raju used in his confession letter from 2009. “Riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,” wrote Raju, explaining the gap between Satyam’s claims and actual profitability.
In a post on Instagram, Netflix shared Raju’s photo, with the caption, “After the success of IT company Satyam Computer Services, Ramalinga Raju’s math didn’t seem to be adding up. Watch the fourth episode of Bad Boy Billionaires: India, out now, only on Netflix.”
The first episode, titled ‘The King of Good Times,’ explores Mallya’s rise and fall through archival news footage and interviews with family members and acquaintances, including his son Sidhartha Mallya. The other two episodes also follow a similar narrative style, with ‘Diamonds Aren’t Forever’ focusing on Nirav Modi, and ‘The World’s Biggest Family’ delving into Subrata Roy, founder of Sahara India Pariwar.
The Netflix series won the 2021 Filmfare award for Best Nonfiction Original, Series/Special.
What was the Satyam scam?
The Satyam scandal is often called ‘India’s Enron’, referring to the United States-based energy company scam in 2006. The episode tracks the rise of the information technology corporation from its inception in 1987 to its status as a worldwide outsourcing giant. Eventually leading to Raju overstating the company’s cash and bank balances by over $1.5 billion, which amounted to roughly Rs 7,000 crore.
The makers used accounts from former employees, authors, journalists and socialites to do a deep dive on Raju and his business in the 50-minute episode. They analysed how stiff competition from Wipro, Infosys and TCS prompted Raju to start fudging accounts to show profits.
Photographed with the likes of former US President Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Raju created an impeccable public image.“He looked like a normal person, like you and me, that’s why people wanted to trust him, because he is so relatable,” said Arvind Krishna, a former coaching program coordinator at Satyam School of Leadership, in the latest episode.
The episode draws parallels between the rise of Hyderabad as the next hi-tech city and Raju’s ambitions, which eventually led to his downfall. Tech Mahindra bought out the company, renamed it Mahindra Satyam, and merged with it in 2013, ending the Satyam brand.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)
It’ s so sad and unfortunate that bad boy billionaire is available to wathc but mega icons is not. Sic.