Thanks Kanwal for Breaking the (Ind-US) Code!

There are rare occasions when a documentary, a Bollywood classic, and a Broadway hit converge into one weekend — and rarer still when the subject of the documentary walks in to join for lunch. I flew to NYC primarily to watch the 2026 Documentary (at NYIFF, recall A Brief History of TIFF) about

Kanwal Singh Rekhi (born August 29, 1945) is an Indian-American businessman. He was the first Indian-American founder and CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In 1995, he co-founded TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit support network to provide advice, contacts, and funding to Indian Americans hoping to start businesses.

Called Breaking the Code and made by his son Ben Rekhi, this film is not to be confused with

Breaking the Code is a 1996 BBC television movie directed by Herbert Wise, based on the 1986 play by Hugh Whitemore about British mathematician Alan Turing, the play thematically links Turing’s cryptographic activities with his attempts to grapple with his homosexuality.

Of course, an added sweetener was that the digitally remastered Sholay (1975) was being screened. Not only was it eminently watchable (in 4K with excellent sound), it was a great social experience to do so with a hundred or so others, most of them who had likely seen the film in India, like me, when it was first released, fifty years ago, and so anticipating the scenes and dialogues – especially of Gabbar Singh – and songs (Yeh Dosti, Mehbooba Mehbooba) was simply delightful. Of course, since I was already in NYC, I popped into see (recall Hello, Broadway!)

The Broadway production of the English version of Maybe Happy Ending. The show was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won six for Best Musical, Book, Score, Actor, Direction and Scenic Design.

An unexpected treat was that Kanwal himself was present, and so, we engaged in the most predictable banter as we walked to the theater after lunch, provoked by him:

KR: You know that in IITB, B stands for Best. M, in IITM, stands for Mediocre.

ST: Seriously? You want to pick a fight on this? Let’s go: B stands for Bad.

Fist-fight ensues.

KR: Okay, fine. M stands for Magnificent.

Certainly Happy Ending.

After the movie, there was an interview of Kanwal and Ben, which was being filmed but is likely not yet available, but Ben had sent me their interview on NY1 from the day before.

As you know from my previous posts, I am working on a philanthropic effort to improve South Asian American Representation in Media (including films, TV, streaming, News), and Kanwal, through his pioneering technology entrepreneurial journey and through social entrepreneurship (TiE, in which I have been a Charter Member since 2001), has paved the way for many of us Indian-Americans to be unremarkable: Unremarkable not as an insult, but as the highest compliment: the freedom to simply be a founder, an entrepreneur, an investor, whatever — without the burden of being a ‘first’ or a ‘representative.’ Kanwal took that burden on himself so the rest of us wouldn’t have to. It is the best gift towards our professional journeys!

Thank You!