Cyrus Pallonji Mistry : A Salute to his Vision

 

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry : A Salute to his Vision

Running down the memory lane to understand Cyrus Pallonji Mistry 

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On1^st January, 2000 as the sun rose in the new millennium, if one had asked top ten corporate chieftains and top ten investment bankers - which is the hottest sector to invest in ;  and which is the sector they were least likely to look at. The answer for the first question for each of the twenty would have been the IT sector and to the second one, for all twenty, would have been infrastructure construction. The reasoning for the former obviously was the Y2K effect. For the latter, everyone knew that the government’s role was critical and so with a multi-party alliance government at the centre, few would show any interest.

 

At that time, ICICI wanted to exit an infrastructure construction company. With the above background and more importantly at the terms and price quoted by ICICI and the then management, there weren’t many buyers. At this time, a young man in his early thirties took up this challenge, despite the fact that he did not have much experience in infrastructure construction. What he saw was what Afcons could become. 

 

By April 2000, Shapoorji Pallonji had acquired Afcons at a market cap of USD 7 million. And as expected when the young man behind this acquisition, Cyrus Mistry, entered Afcons’ office, on his first day, challenges lined up as if they were just awaiting his arrival – labour union issues, demoralized staff,  mounting debt and impending losses. In order to address varied issues like human resources, engineering, finance, corporate planning etc. Cyrus Mistry decided to have weekly meetings with the different teams. With an eye for detail, he sat on problems with senior engineers as well as junior engineers. With this approach, he was quickly able to grasp issues relating to the infrastructure business. He personally addressed problems at the project as well as at the corporate level and became their ‘Solution Finder’.  As a result, over the years, Afcons continued to build on its engineering prowess and its international portfolio of projects.

 

 

Today, in 2023, when I see Afcons being valued upwards of USD 2 billion, as a person having closely witnessed the ICICI-Afcons transaction and the challenges that followed in bringing the company back in black, the feeling that I have is a mix of emotions that generate a sense of intellectual vision but with an unseen sadness embedded in it. 

 

One of my another critical experiences with Cyrus Mistry was in January 2017, when he had come to see Mughal-e-Azam : The Musical at NCPA, Mumbai. Most people who would meet me after the show would tell me what they liked about the show but when Cyrus Mistry came out of the show, at 11.15 pm, he told me only one thing, “Deepesh, this show has to be taken to Delhi” and went into his car. He was in a hurry, so I  was unable to present him my perspective. Later, as the producer of the show, I explained him that this show has been designed only as a stationed show (25,000 kg of stage properties, occupying 22 trucks et al). Moreover, Delhi had no theatre with an infrastructure to showcase a musical play of the scale of  Mughal-e-Azam. And creating a theatre infrastructure meant a huge engineering challenge. He replied, “Engineering is our forte”. The message was clear, “The show had to happen in Delhi”. 

 

After multiple recces, an engineering solution was found. But was unimaginably expensive. When I again told him that doing a show in Delhi would cost an unheard of sum, he said it cannot not be less than the cost of not doing a show like Mughal-e-Azam in Delhi. So ultimately, I did not even tell him the budget and gave the green signal to the team. A completely new set was made, a brand new theatrical infrastructure was constructed with 25 flybars  (only to be completely dismantled after the shows) and Jawaharlal Nehru stadium was given a complete facelift. 

 

And when the performances of Mughal-e-Azam commenced in Delhi, almost the entire Cabinet was present for the premier in Sep 2017. The show was enjoyed by senior bureaucrats, judiciary, ambassadors of various countries and the who’s who of Delhi. The most notable outcome was that Team Mughal-e-Azam had learnt to travel and had realized that the true potential of the show lied not just in Mumbai but across borders. By 2019, Mughal-e-Azam had been performed in six Asian countries. The show was now a truly international show. 

 

In 2023, as I see the successful performances across fourteen cities in North America, and as I see this Independence Day, The Times of India mentioning Mughal-e-Azam amongst the soft powers of an Unstoppable India, I cannot stop crying…... remembering the man who saw the future but could not witness it !

 

Long Live Cyrus Mistry (4 July 1968 – 4 Sep 2022).

 

 

-      - DEEPESH SALGIA

      Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Esate

     Producer, Mughal-e-Azam : The Musical

 

 

 

 

 

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