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By Vivek Wadhwa Bollywood, Here I Come! Meet our latest columnist, a U.S. entrepreneur-turned-film producer, who will be reporting on his new business in the world's busiest movie mecca After 25 years as a geek, hacker, programmer, project manager, chief technology officer, and finally, chief executive officer of a technology company, I have added a new title to my resumé: Bollywood film producer. And I owe it all to a heart attack, venture capitalists, and my son. My story is a simple one. I spent five years running at top speed to build a software outfit called Relativity Technologies, which helps modernize their legacy computer systems. Relativity received worldwide recognition and in 2001, a top business magazine named it one of the world's 25 "coolest" companies. Like all other tech players, the dot-com crash hit us hard. To make ends meet, we had to lay off good employees and raise more money. We believed so much in our company that my management team and I personally invested the first $1 million in a $5 million round of financing. After we succeeded in getting back to solid growth and profits, I decided to take a much needed vacation. HEART OF THE MATTER. It must have been the lack of Internet access on my Caribbean cruise that led to a massive heart attack. I woke up in the hospital glad to be alive. While still in the Critical Care Unit, I received a phone call saying that my investors felt the need to renegotiate the terms of the current financing. Two days later and still bandaged, I left the hospital and walked, uninvited, into a closed-door meeting, where investors were trying to convince my executive team to accept more money for a revised agreement that would give them majority ownership. I flatly refused, and ended the meeting. My friends sent me lots of "get well" flowers. My investors sent me a letter demanding that I step aside and allow the younger brother of a partner in one of their firms to take over -- the company I had founded, built with most of my life savings, and paid for with a cardiac arrest. For the next few months, I spent what little energy I had fighting people I formerly held in high regard. Fortunately, that chapter of my life story had a happy ending. I won critical battles, kept control of Relativity, and eventually recruited a new CEO to take over from me. I also took my doctors' advice to do something less stressful than fight venture capitalists for a living, and regained my health. I kept my role as chairman of the board, but decided that my chief priority was to make up for lost time with my family. A FATHER'S DUTY. That led me to India, where my eldest son, Vineet, was taking his semester abroad in New Delhi. He is as American as can be, but Vineet had not only discovered his Indian roots, he also had acquired the Indian addiction to Bollywood movies. An Indian specialty, these films tend to be spicy, dramatic, and romantic musical extravaganzas, and should never be watched without a ready handkerchief. Think Moulin Rouge or Chicago with family-values morals, but even more over-the-top musical numbers and costumes. In India, Bollywood's stars are practically worshipped by the masses. When I told Vineet that I was taking a month off to spend with him, I don't think he believed me. I asked him where in India he would like to travel. His immediate answer? Bollywood, in the city of Mumbai -- formerly known as Bombay -- home of the world's largest film industry. And he asked for a rare favor: Could we meet some movie stars while we were there? His dad was famous and knew everyone, right? Of course I didn't know any movie stars -- I was just a techie who started a software company. However, I couldn't admit this to him. To make things worse, I didn't think I knew anyone who knew any movie stars, since most of my friends were like me. Yet I couldn't let my son down. After exhausting my list of Indian contacts, I recalled corresponding with an investment banker, Brad Listermann, who was raising money for a telecommunications outfit. When I talked to him a couple of weeks earlier, he had mentioned something about Bollywood. Grasping at straws, I sent him an urgent e-mail asking him for more information. LIMO TO LUXURY. What luck. As it turned out, he was married to former beauty queen and Bollywood star, Kashmira Shah. He had met her on the Internet, and after months of romancing via e-mail, they got together, fell in love, and married. Unfortunately, she was scheduled to be in Hollywood for a film that was shooting the week we were to be in Mumbai. Brad offered to introduce us to Feroz Khan instead. In most of South Asia and the Middle East, Feroz Khan is as well known as Clint Eastwood or Robert Redford. I gladly took Brad up on his offer. Believe me, we would have traveled anywhere to shake hands with Feroz.
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