Atlas Ramachandran

Born in Thrissur, Kerala, M.M.Ramachandran, popularly known as ‘Atlas Ramachandran’ is the chairman of the Atlas Jewelry. He established the Atlas Group in the 1970s and went ahead to have the first gold showroom in Kuwait City in 1981.

He later founded establishments in diverse fields such as Atlas Health Care in health care and Atlas Gold Townships in real estate. He has not left behind advertising and photography and founded several studios in its favor.

At one point, Atlas Group had a turn over of 3.5 billion Dirhams with gold showrooms in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India. Atlas Ramachandran is the son of late V.Kamalakara Menon who was a renowned poet.

He is married to Indira Ramachandran and has a son named Sreekanth and daughter named Manju who is a doctor by profession. He has proved his mettle even in the field of film production and acting. Not too long ago in 2010, he released a movie named ‘Holidays’ in roughly thirty-six theatres by Cinema Factory Release. According to Atlas Ramachandran, the movie was aimed at youngsters. He made his directorial debut with it and it received several negative reviews.

Critics opinioned that it did not have a good script and that the plot was ridiculous. Atlas Ramachandran was given brickbats by the critics saying that the movie lacked sensible direction. The visuals, music, performances were not enough to make the movie a box office hit.

His life spiraled downwards when in 2015, the Income Tax department conducted numerous raids on the properties owned by jewelers. Both Atlas Ramachandran and his daughter were arrested by the Dubai Police Force after a warrant was issued against him of financial fraud exceeding more than 1,000 crores in multiple banks.

Currently, he is serving his jail term of 3 years in Dubai prison. After his jailing, all the 19 showrooms in the United Arab Emirates had to be shut down and put him in extreme financial crisis. His wife, currently residing in Dubai, is struggling to pay the rent and trying to make ends meet.

She is living in constant fear since some banks from which they took loans have initiated civil proceedings against her. In March 2017, Atlas Ramachandran had a new ray of hope when he found out the NRI Keralites residing in Dubai are joining hands to bail him out. Currently, only the Atlas Health Care Hospital is operational.