The entrepreneurial rise of Chinnakannan Sivasankaran began in the 1980s with Sterling Computers, a key player in India’s IT sector by the 1990s.

You must have heard many success stories on India.com but here is a story of someone who once the owner of two private islands, a lavish 71-room mansion in Chennai, lived a successful life but is now broke. Once the owner of properties in various continents, Chinnakannan SIVASANKARAN IS widely known in business circles as “Siva”. The tragedy of his life is such that he now describes himself as a broke man. Here is all you need to know about Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and his journey.

The life of Sivasankaran’s unfolds like a gripping Biopic. SIVASANKARAN WAS raised in a humble household in Tamil Nadu, Sivvankaran and had an extraordinary journey ahead. With his path moving him through India’s corporate world, he achieved everything he could but ultimately lost his billion-dollar business empire.

In a recent appearance on The Ranveer Show, the former telecom magnate reflected on his meteoric rise and dramatic fall.

“I’m not poor, I’m just broke for the time being,” he said with a serenity that contrasts the storms he’s weathered.

“I had everything – wealth, properties, recognition – and then I watched it all vanish,” he was quoted as saying by a report by News18 about his journey.

“I decided what I had to do next. My story is not over yet,” he declared, he added about his plans.

Entrepreneurial rise of Chinnakannan Sivasankaran

The entrepreneurial rise of Chinnakannan Sivasankaran began in the 1980s with Sterling Computers, a key player in India’s IT sector by the 1990s. However, the major breakthrough in the career of Chinnakannan Sivasankaran came with the launch of Aircel in 1999.

Aircel, the telecom company quickly gained wide popularity traction due to the consumer likable offers that it used to provide. It became a prominent brand, leading to Siva selling a 74% stake to Malaysia’s Maxis Communications in 2006—a deal that later drew scrutiny in the controversial 2G spectrum scandal.

Downfall of Chinnakannan Sivasankaran

Though Sivasankaran avoided criminal charges, he was involved in legal battles and got in huge trouble due to the mounting debt. By the year 2018, Aircel filed for bankruptcy, with Siva claiming personal losses of Rs 7,000 crore.

The report also says that his net worth was once over $4 billion, but with the downfall of Aircel, everything changed.