Aahana Swrup
‘Made in India: A Titan Story’ charts the ambitious story of Xerxes Desai, a businessman who dreamed of building a homegrown Indian watchmaking brand and bringing it to global success. However, even with the support of J. R. D. Tata and his lucrative conglomerate, the project manager has an uphill battle against him. Fortunately, this is a battle he doesn’t have to fight alone. Almost as soon as he conceived of the venture, which would eventually turn into Titan, he found the camaraderie and collaboration of Akash Bansal, one of his closest friends. Even as a founding member, the latter’s role in the company remains largely undefined. He consults on a variety of matters, from designs and marketing to technical departments. As a result, Akash’s integral role in the narrative makes his possible roots in reality worth exploring.
Akash Bansal is an Amalgamation of Titan’s Foundational Executives
‘Made in India: A Titan Story’ is a period drama series that finds firm roots in reality. It’s based on the non-fiction book ‘Titan: Inside India’s Most Successful Consumer Brand’ by Vinay Kamath, which pens the history of Titan, a leading Indian corporation known for its substantial footing in the watch industry. Inevitably, in telling this story, Xerxes Desai, the founder and first managing director, remains a critical component of the story. Likewise, the businessman’s team, encompassing individual experts in marketing, engineering, and more, all retain prominent relevance. As a result, a majority of the elements explored in the show find a tangible basis in real life. This includes the partially fictionalized character of Akash Bansal.
Even though the show takes its cues from history and Kamath’s literary source material, it also dabbles in slight fictionalization and dramatization. Consequently, while the narratives explored on-screen are based on reality, they also maintain a sense of fictional tinkering born of creative liberty. In real life, Desai surrounded himself with a group of skilled, ambitious, and dedicated individuals who believed in the dream of Titan and were eager to make it a reality. Some of these founding executives include Anil Manchanda, Hari Rao, M. S. Shantharam, B.G. Dwarakanath, J.Robert, I.K. Amitha, B.N. Yalamalli, Xerxes Desai, Bhaskar Bhat, and Vibha Rishi.
Although not an exact biographical counterpart, Akash’s character strives to showcase the reality of the contributions of most of these members who were a part of Titan from the very start. Notably, his character seems to retain a resemblance to Anil Manchanda. The latter became a significant part of Desai’s life following his brief stint at CIDCO, City and Industrial Development Corporation. At the advice of a senior bureaucrat, Manchanda decided to leave the government agency and join the Tata Group in collaboration with Desai.
In fact, Manchanda was the one who pursued Desai to seek out a project in the watchmaking industry, shortlisting it as the optimal venture. In March 1988, the businessman wrote of his experience in the early days of Titan’s establishment and said, “There had been times in the intervening years when we felt weary of the effort needed to find a partner, negotiate a know-how contract, and get governmental approvals in the teeth of opposition by smugglers and entrenched Indian manufacturers. There were times when Minoo, Anil (Manchanda), and I felt like abandoning the effort. But there was one man who thought that the effort should not slacken. That was J.R.D. Tata!”
Thus, it seems that Akash’s on-screen characterization as a close and early confidant for Xerxes was prominently influenced by the role Manchanda played at Titan in real life. Even so, the character’s narrative doesn’t present a direct recreation of the real-life individual. Instead, the show only borrows parts of reality while continuing to largely employ Akash’s character as a surrogate for the multiple real-life executives who worked at Titan from day one. Ultimately, his character presents a realistic look into the nature of sacrifices, drive, and faith that such an ambitious project would have realistically required of its early personnel.
Read More: Where is Xerxes Desai’s Family Now?
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