Businessman M M Ramachandran, synonymous with Atlas Ramachandran, 80, passed away due to a heart attack at Bur Dubai Aster Mankhool Hospital late on Sunday night. The funeral will be held in Dubai later.
He was admitted in the hospital with chest pain on Saturday night. His wife Indira and daughter Dr Manju were with him when he breathed his last. His death happened at a time when he was gearing up to restart his jewellery chain Atlas Jewellery, which is defunct.
For quite some time, former chairman of Atlas Jewellery, Atlas Ramachandran's WhatsApp status has been "working hard to rebuild". He had hogged headlines in August when he celebrated his 80th birthday with a small gathering of his friends at his apartment in Bur Dubai. Born on July 31, 1942, at Thrissur, he was the son of V Kamalakara Menon and M M Rugmini Amma.
The banker turned jeweller was "detained" (in his words) by the Dubai Police in May 2018 for the delay in repayment of bank borrowings in his absence.
In an interview to The New Indian Express, in August he recalled how his former managers had duped him which led to his arrest and prison term. A whopping 3,000 plus kilos of gold spread across 44 jewellery shops in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries which were worth 740 million AED (Rs 1583.77 crores) had gone missing once he was released from prison, pushing him to penury. Every day he used to get dressed in his flashy kurta by 8:30 am as if going to his office and attending online meetings with his lawyers.
Atlas Ramachandran started his gold jewellery business in 1981 when he bought two kilos of gold with whatever money he had in his hand. From then on there was no looking back until his arrest by the Dubai Police in 2018.
Having held several covetable positions like the chairman of Dubai Shopping Festival’s Gold Promotion Council, Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group secretary and getting the contract to set up Atlas Jewellery at the Cochin International Airport Limited had not gone down well with his competitors in the trade. When the CEO’s of the various companies were not prepared to lend their names, Ramachandran came out with a tagline, "Atlas Jewellery -Janakodikalude Vishwasthasthapanam" (Trusted by millions).
His life resembles the story of “Jacobinte Swargarajyam” where in real life, Atlas Ramachandran’s wife, Indu as he used to call her fondly took baby steps in business which saw her selling their two hospitals, and do the follow-up with the banks and to ensure his release from confinement.
He had produced several films like Vaishali, Dhanam, Kauravar, Chakoram, Innale and Sukrutham and also acted in Arabikatha, Subhadram, Anandabhairavi, Malabar Wedding and 2 Harihar Nagar.
He had also directed a film, Holidays and was also the owner of Chandrakantha films. Though the travel ban was lifted, Atlas Ramachandran wanted to clear the remaining few civil cases against him before embarking on his trip to Kerala.