Vijay Crishna’s life is a reminder that you can blend profit, non-profit and art /culture into one consummate career.
As the U.S. attacked Iran, three days before Vijay Crishna died – it brought the possibility of nuclear war right back into the realm of possibility.
A movie made in 1987 on the iit bombay campus had highlighted precisely this possibility. Vijay had played the lead in this movie – he was then 40 and I was 20. I wrote the script and played cinematographer. It was also the first and only feature film in history to be aired concurrently by Doordarshan and Pakistan (and Bangladesh tv) under the SAARC audio visual exchange program. Here is a documentary extracted from the movie:
For more than four decades, Vijay Crishna built a distinguished corporate career within the Godrej Group ecosystem. At the same time, he remained deeply committed to the arts, becoming one of the most respected figures in India’s English theatre scene. His performance in the play Dance Like a Man ran for decades and became iconic.
Cinema audiences remember him as well. Starting with the movie Gandhi by Attenborough – his roles in films such as Devdas, PK and Guzaarish showed a quiet screen presence that will outlive him.
His life is a reminder that sometimes the most meaningful paths are the ones that allow business, creativity and curiosity to grow side by side.
Vijay was from St Stephan’s, not an engineer yet he left a mark on a generation of IITians as did IIT on him. I recall driving down in his military green Gypsy to what is now Godrej One and Taj Trees in Vikroli, Mumbai to see operations of what was then Godrej Industries and Godrej & Boyce – to discuss how technology could disrupt what they were doing. A few months ago I was at the same campus to meet his brother-in-law Nadir Godrej who is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.
Vijay helped set up Lawkin Ltd – one of India’s most respected manufacturers and exporters of electric motors. Way before the Atomberg founders made it to IIT Bombay, Lawkin started delivering BLDC motors for applications like HVAC.
Vijay then went on to set up the Nauroji Godrej Plant Research Centre on medicinal plants. And along with Nadir Godrej, was on the Board of Godrej Agrovet which has revolutionised strawberry cultivation.
He helped lay the groundwork for the open health platform of the IIT Alumni Council epitomised in the global best sellor on the subject:
Ayurveda revisited: Process Technology Breakthrough
https://amzn.in/d/00HhwPkj
Five years ago, when we started researching ageing in general and dementia in particular, he reached out to me seeking help with managing Alzheimer’s whose symptoms has become a limiting factor for him.
The open health platform is a few months away from cracking the code which could help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. It could not get ready in time.
RIP Vijay.