Vijay Nair is an Indian businessman best known as the founder of the independent music and artist management company Only Much Louder (OML). He made headlines on September 28, 2022, when he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy scam case.
Wiki/Biography
Vijay Nair was born in Mumbai in 1984 (age 38 in 2022). He is a dropout from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′7″
Hair color: black
Eye color: black
family
There is not much information about his family. His elder brother Ajay Nair joined OML in 2010 as chief financial officer and later became chief operating officer.
Profession
entrepreneur
Nair began his career at the age of 15, working in marketing for Procter & Gamble’s web portal Masti.com. After a brief stint at Procter & Gamble, he worked for an online magazine called Gigpad. At Gigpad, he held a screenwriting position, for which he had to travel across the country to follow bands and their shows. While working at Gigpad, he met the rock band Acquired Funk Syndrome and became their manager. Soon, he dropped out of college and began managing the band full-time. In an interview, he also talked about the same and said:
At first I thought I would quit for a year, but then I started managing other bands and it all started from there. I didn’t learn anything in college. “
A year after Nair began managing Acquired Funk Syndrome, he also began managing the popular Mumbai rock band Zero, where he met Girish “Bobby” Talwar; Talwar was the band’s bassist. In 2003, Nair made a major breakthrough in his fledgling artist management career when he joined Pentagram, India’s most popular rock band at the time, as a manager. Vishal Dadlani is the lead singer of the band. In 2002, he co-founded Mumbai-based artist and event management company Only Much Louder with Girish “Bobby” Talwar and Arjun S Ravi. The company was informally established in 2002 as an independent artist management business by Nair and officially established in 2006 by Talwar and Nair. The company organizes various music and comedy shows such as The Dewarists, MTV Sound Trippin’, AIB Roast and Stage42. Ultimately, OML operates a digital publication, video production company, booking agency, record label and live events company. In addition to organizing shows, his company also operates its own ticketing and technology platform, Insider. in., acquired by PayTM in 2017.
politics
He joined AAP in 2014. Between 2018 and 2019, he planned social media strategy, party activities and fundraising activities for the party. In 2019, he began managing the party’s political campaigns. In 2020, he served as a volunteer for the Aam Aadmi Party contesting the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections. While working for AAP, he managed social media accounts and planned party events.
dispute
Harassment from cyberstalkers
In 2017, Vijay made headlines as a victim of cyberstalking. It all started back in 2015, when a netizen who used a variation of the word Ketaki as his name made disgraceful comments on several of Vijay’s tweets. The netizen had interfered with him during his chats with other people, especially women, and responded to his conversations in an obscene manner. After some struggle, Vijay finally found out the identity of the netizen, who turned out to be a woman he knew. The woman worked for a company called The Viral Fever, a competitor of OML. During interrogation, she alleged that her boss, TVF founder Arunabh Kumar, asked her to harass Nair. However, the police found Arunabha Kumar innocent. The woman was not arrested or charged as cyberstalking is not a crime under the Information Technology Act.
Accused of sexual harassment
In 2018, Caravan magazine published an article about Nair, saying his work environment was toxic for female employees. Nair was accused of sexual harassment during his tenure as OML CEO. The report further stated that
He asked one woman to get into the bathtub with him and told another woman at 2am that he needed a massage. He even sent explicit images to women without their consent, including one in which a man appeared to be ejaculating. ”
Arrested in connection with Delhi excise policy scam
In 2022, Nair was detained by the CBI in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam. Speaking about Nair, AAP said of him:
We strongly condemn these unconstitutional and illegal actions taken by the BJP. All allegations against Vijay Nair and AAP leaders are false and baseless. ”
Facts/Trivia
- He dropped out of college at the age of eighteen and began managing leading Indian indie bands including Pentagram, Zero, Pin Drop Violence and others. He originally wanted to take a break and then go to college, but after the business boomed, he didn’t go back to college.
- His family did not stop him from leaving college because they believed that he was not wasting time at home but working hard.
- He said in an interview that he knew nothing about music before starting his business. In an interview, he spoke about this and said:
I started listening to bands when I was 15 or 16 years old. I started listening to Indian bands before international bands. That’s how I got into it more seriously. For me, my journey has been about building a business and the love of doing that, not just the love of the music itself, because the music came after I started the company. I wasn’t a major music connoisseur before this. I’m first and foremost a fan of what I do, I just want to work and get something done. “
- In 2016, he was named to Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 list, which annually recognizes the most influential young leaders.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education