You know Rajeev Shukla as a minister, a Congress spokesperson, a Gandhi family aide and a powerful BCCI member. Shukla inhabits the worlds of politics, business, cricket and entertainment — things all Indians are passionate about.
Little is known about how, with wife Anurradha Prasad, he quietly got into businesses involving India's most influential — Gauri and Shah Rukh Khan, Nita and Mukesh Ambani, Indiabulls' Sameer Gehlaut, HFCL's Mahendra Nahata and broadcasting giant Star India.
Click through to make yourself familiar with Rajeev Shukla's multi faceted personality who has achieved great success in every field.
Rajeev Shukla came to Delhi in 1983 as a reporter for the now-defunct Ravivar magazine. He later rose to become the political editor of ABP Group's Sunday magazine and editor of the Sunday Observer between 1997 and 2000, was promoted by Reliance Industries before the split in the Ambani family.
Rajeev Shukla made a spectacular entry into politics in 2000, when he won more than double the votes at the command of his party, the splinter outfit Loktantrik Congress Party.
As the Lucknow bureau chief of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, Shukla had covered the UP Assembly for years. Shukla's wife and BAG Group promoter Anurradha Prasad's father Thakur Prasad was a Jan Sangh leader and her brother Ravi Shankar Prasad is a BJP spokesperson.
As a reporter during the late 80s, Shukla grew close to Rajiv Gandhi. In 2002, Shukla left the NDA and joined the Congress and in 2004, Congress came back to power under Sonia Gandhi. He became the official spokesperson of both party and government and was seen as having the ears of both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
People who've known him for years say that Rajeev Shukla's success lies in his ability to connect with people and connect people.
In 2004, Shukla helped organise private screenings of Shah Rukh Khan's films Veer Zara and Main Hoon Na at Delhi's Mahadeva auditorium.
Shukla is blessed with an ace stock picker's talent to gauge people's political or business fortunes.
Rajeev Shukla served as BCCI vice-president for six years (maximum term). He became a senior official of the very rich and powerful BCCI working committee. Last week, he resigned as chairman of IPL after a betting and spot-fixing scandal engulfed the tournament.
Rajeev Shukla is the promoter of a clutch of media firms that broadcast satellite channels and produce TV soaps like BAG Films & Media, E24 Glamour, News24 Broadcast, ARVR Communications, ISOMES Media School, Greater Valley School and BAG Business Ventures.
Rajeev Shukla knew both Shah Rukh Khan and RIL's Ambani long before they invested in his companies. As the host of the talk show 'Ru Ba Ru' on Zee, Shukla interviewed Shah Rukh in 1996, shortly after the success of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.
In recent years, Shukla has started expanding the family media business run by his wife Anurradha Prasad. Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri are investors in Shukla's companies. Shah Rukh is an investor in ARVR Communications, a company promoted by Anurradha Prasad that is the largest shareholder in BAG Films and Media Ltd.
Shukla also enjoys a great rapport with India's biggest industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Through transactions involving a web of companies, entities that form part of Reliance Industries' promoter group are linked to companies that have made a Rs 76-crore investment in three BAG Group companies — BAG Film and Media, E24 Broadcast and News24 Broadcast.
Nita Ambani also sits on the advisory board of the media school run by the BAG Network, according to the International School of Media and Entertainment Studies.
ARVR Communications also has investments from Indiabulls Group promoter Sameer Gehlaut and a Rs 25-crore investment from companies controlled by Mahendra Nahata of HFCL.
High Growth Distributors invested Rs 26.15 crore in BAG Films during 2006-07 and followed this up the next fiscal with a Rs 25-crore investment each in E24 Broadcast and News24 Broadcast.
