BENGALURU: Spilling some beans about Boris Johnson, Anil Shetty, a city-based entrepreneur who recently met him, says, “He has a typical way of addressing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Shetty was at the Indian Global Forum, hosted by Manoj Ladwa, a close aide to the Prime Minister of the UK. He playfully describes the UK’s PM as the ‘Ranveer Singh of London’. “He is always on a high-energy mode and is an extremely charismatic person,” says Shetty, as he goes on to imitate Johnson’s way of speaking.
At the forum, Shetty also had a chance to interact with Rishi Sunak, Finance Minister of the UK and son-in-law of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy. “I was invited to speak on the subject of startup matchmaking. It draws from my experiences as a banker, especially how I get founders and investors to agree with each other,” explains Shetty. He describes Sunak as the complete opposite of Johnson.
“Rishi is more sophisticated and maintains that elegance while speaking and is very mindful of what he says. I happened to mention Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and he immediately responded, ‘Yes, she hosted my sangeet’. He also went ahead and complimented my tie,” he recalls, adding that he got along with Sunak very well since he shared a similar career path with him – investment banker-turned-politician.
Shetty’s road to 10 Downing Street hasn’t been easy. Born in a remote village of Karnataka called Shankaranarayana which comes under the Udupi district, he had no money to go to school as his family was below the poverty line. “I used to study with a kerosene lamp, and there were days when I had to close my books if the kerosene got over,” he recalls. He worked with his uncle to sponsor his engineering course. At the age of 21, he quit everything and decided to join ISKCON for six months and recited the Bhagavad Gita, which he considers his guiding force.
Things took a turn in 2015, as he cracked his first banking deal for the brand Licious, which turned into a unicorn. He then tasted success as an investment banker. In 2020, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and is a candidate from the BTM constituency.
Shetty is quite clear about one thing, owing to his background – and that is doing philanthropic work. “I only knew one thing: one must rightfully earn money and spend meaningfully. If I want to buy a pair of shoes for `1 lakh, I will go ahead and buy it, but at the same time, I will also contribute money to something that will make an impact,” says Shetty, who lives by the philosophy that a person should not change, only the positions should.
From Udupi to 10 Downing Street– city-based investment banker-turned politician Anil Shetty, who recently rubbed shoulders with UK’s PM Boris Johnson and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, gives CE a sneak-peek into his life