Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Intermission
BusinessEducation

Intermission

The Ken

Every great Indian enterprise has a story worth telling in full.

With Intermission, The Ken's flagship long-form podcast, hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Seetharaman G do exactly that—tracing the origins, turning points, and defining strategies of the companies that shaped modern India.

Play
Open in
  • 7 episodes
  • Avg 2 hr 30 min
  • English

Episodes 7

NewestOldestLongest
All7Unplayed7In progress0Played0
  • #4
    August 17 · 2 hr 26 min

    ITC: The remaking of a giant | Intermission E04 | The Ken

    ITC is the great paradox of Indian business: a tobacco company that spent decades trying to become something other than a tobacco company, and pulled it off. Getting there meant surviving a tax demand five times its net worth, the arrest of two former chairmen, and a long, bruising war with BAT for control of the company. It meant winning at atta when even Hindustan Unilever couldn't, rewiring how India's farmers sell their crops, and building it all without a founder or a family at the helm. Today ITC turns over roughly ₹80,000 crore, owns a ₹9,000 crore brand in Aashirvaad alone, and counts the Indian government as its single largest shareholder. Among them, LIC, which insures the lives of the very smokers keeping ITC's profits alight. This is the story of how a colonial cigarette company became one of India's most valuable — and most unlikely — conglomerates. Tune in! --------- We also have an interactive companion page to explore the history of ITC with reading lists, infographics and source notes: https://the-ken.com/intermission/the-fmcg-company-in-a-cigarette-pack-itc/ ---------- Credits: Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Director: Vijay Subramaniam Video Producer: Vishnu S Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Animation:⁠⁠ Karthik N Video Editing Team: Spandan Joshi, Prajwal Colourist: Akhil Raj Graphic Design and Styleframes: Anusha Sarah On-Set Production: Veeresh and team Production Coordination: Kevin Raj Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Spot Edit: Girish Set Design: Saanvi Joshi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Adhavan RK Writer (Microsite): Brady Ng Editor: Sumit Chakraborty Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar 'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat ---------- About Intermission: Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1. Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken. About The Ken: The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. Follow The Ken on socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/ Twitter: http://x.com/thekenweb/

  • August 13 · 1 min

    TRAILER - ITC: The remaking of a giant | Intermission E04 | The Ken

    Ask two generations of Indians what ITC is, and you'll get two completely different answers. That gap might be one of the most remarkable reinventions in Indian business. The story goes all the way back to 1910 — to a British tobacco company that taught India how to smoke — and follows ITC's journey into food, paper, hotels and agri, all without a founding family, and with more boardroom drama than most thrillers. The question at its heart: how does a company build a future beyond tobacco? Episode 4 of Intermission on ITC goes live on Monday, 17 August.

  • #4
    June 28 · 4 hr 20 min

    Intermission E03: Airtel

    Stream a video, send a message, call a loved one. For nearly 474 million Indians, that connection runs through Bharti Airtel. Over three decades, the company has made it through price wars, near-bankruptcy, a botched overseas acquisition, and two incursions from Reliance. Each time, it weathered the crisis and came back stronger. Investors who held on through every crisis have been rewarded with returns that match the best businesses in India. But the forces that shaped Airtel — regulation, technology, and competition — have never stopped moving. Jio is back, this time with a $110 billion bet on AI and data centres. The hyperscalers are customers today and competitors tomorrow. And the telecom industry is shifting from minutes to bytes to tokens. At the centre of it all is Sunil Bharti Mittal, a founder who operates with the intensity of someone still trying to prove himself, even after building a company worth more than $100 billion. He turns 70 in 2027. He wants to raise his family's stake in Airtel from 40% to 51% — a Rs 1 lakh crore buyback he believes can be funded through dividends and share repurchases over three to four years. The question that now hangs over Airtel is what happens to it when Mittal is no longer at its core. Airtel has survived every version of telecom so far. But it hasn't fully solved its three-body problem yet. Where does it go from here? We also have an interactive webpage to explore the history of Airtel Finance with reading lists, infographics and source notes: https://the-ken.com/intermission/the-unkillable-network-bharti-airtel/ You can also watch the episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dONpkY7-U Corrections In the interest of accuracy, this section documents any factual errors made during the episode, along with the correct information. Light speed — Rohin said light travels at 200,000 km/s. The correct figure is roughly 300,000 km/s. Gopal Vittal's age — Rohin said Gopal Vittal was in his 30s when he became CEO of Airtel. He was actually in his 40s. Seetha corrects this at 4:14:30. ---------- Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 4:09— Chapter 1: Ludhiana — India's industrial Manchester 16:00 — Chapter 2: Delhi — School of power & hard knocks 41:07 — Chapter 3: Policy pivot and partnership model 1:09:27 — Chapter 4: The Reliance juggernaut's first attack 1:31:05 — Chapter 5: Akhil Gupta, the 2000s, and the art of financial judo 1:54:42 — Chapter 6: The Singaporean pillar 2:03:31 — Chapter 7: Gopal Vittal, the flawless executor from HUL 2:29:36 — Chapter 8: The Africa no-yes-no-yes story 2:45:02 — Chapter 9: The Airtel culture 2:59:47 — Chapter 10: The zero rating debacle 3:11:27 — Chapter 11: The three-body problem and the 2G scam 3:21:58 — Chapter 12: The Reliance juggernaut is now "Jio" 3:52:04 — Chapter 13: Airtel after/without Sunil Mittal ---------- Credits: Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Director: Vijay Subramaniam Video Producer: Vishnu S Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Animation:⁠⁠ Karthik N Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Jayesh Sahu Colourist: Akhil Raj Graphic Design and Styleframes: Anusha Sarah On-Set Production: Veeresh and team Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Spot Edit: Girish Set Design: Saanvi Joshi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Adhavan RK Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar 'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat ---------- About Intermission: Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1. Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken. About The Ken: The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. Follow The Ken on socials: Instagram: / theken_web LinkedIn: / the-ken Twitter: https://x.com/thekenweb/

  • #3
    May 11 · 4 hr 25 min

    Intermission E02: Bajaj Finance

    Sell a Bajaj scooter, finance their EMIs. For years, that was the entire purpose of Bajaj Auto Finance. But consumers in India wanted much more. They outfitted their homes with new television sets, refrigerators, and washing machines. They wanted iPhones, hair transplants, fitness equipment and more. Lending for those hinted at a much larger opportunity. And the Bajaj group seized it. Bajaj Auto Finance became Bajaj Finance. A legacy auto-financing arm went on to create India’s consumer credit infrastructure, shaping how millions buy things. Today, Bajaj Finance manages a loan book of over Rs 5 lakh crore, serves more than 119 million customers, and is valued roughly Rs 6 lakh crore. It is twice as large as Bajaj Auto, the parent company it was spun out of. This is the story of how that happened. Tune in! Our team has built an interactive webpage for Bajaj Finance. It’s a research guide to this episode. Check it out here: https://the-ken.com/story/why-you-cant-ignore-bajaj-finances-call/ Additional material: Saurabh Mukerjea’s analysis of Bajaj Finance: https://open.spotify.com/episode/70JSD3LIE16jcsGSjhjtr9?go=1&sp_cid=e2ae99a929ea25663dee6c3cf825b11d&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&si=qTrmTQ0cS-GUeNDEct3COw&nd=1&dlsi=0aa636ff1f8d44f0 The Harvard Business case study on Bajaj Finance: https://store.hbr.org/product/bajaj-finance-building-an-omnipresent-financial-services-firm/523040?sku=523040-PDF-ENG Inside Bajaj Finance’s aggressive call-to-sell-loan strategy: https://the-ken.com/story/why-you-cant-ignore-bajaj-finances-call/ Credits for chapter images: Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Group, Business Today/Bajaj Group, Fortune/Bajaj Group and Wikipedia. Credits: Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Director: Vijay Subramaniam, Video Producer: Vishnu S Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Tejas Kulkarni, Jayesh Sahu Colourist: Akhil Raj Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah On-Set Production: Chaitanya, Veeresh and team Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Spot Edit: Girish Set Design: Saanvi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar 'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat About Intermission: Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1. Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken. About The Ken: The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. Follow The Ken on socials: Instagram: instagram.com/theken_web LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/the-ken Twitter: https://x.com/thekenweb/

  • #2
    March 22 · 3 hr 25 min

    Intermission E01 - Asian Paints (PART 2)

    This is Part 2 of Intermission's episode on Asian Paints. We'd urge you to listen to Part 1 first to get a full picture of the company's early history and main bets. — Asian Paints was founded in 1942 by four young Gujaratis in a Bombay garage. Today, it controls more than half of India's paint market. This is the story of how that happened. The company was among the first to tap into the rural market, become a technology company before most people understood what that meant, crack the supply chain, and bring about a new era of Indian advertising. Now, Asian Paints is being met with renewed competition and aggression from Birla Opus, JSW Dulux and Berger Paints. Understanding why this market is so hard to take requires understanding of how it was built. — We also have an interactive webpage exploring Asian Paints' history with reading lists, infographics, and source notes: the-ken.com/intermission. — The full episode runs 6 hours and is split into two parts on podcast platforms. — About Intermission: Intermission, produced by The Ken, dives deep into the histories of iconic Indian companies. Intermission was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our season sponsor. Disclosure: Rainmatter Foundation is an investor in The Ken's parent company. — About The Ken:The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, startups and healthcare across India and Southeast Asia. Since our inception, we’ve published thousands of stories that have been widely discussed, debated and referenced. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. — Follow us on our socials: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/thekenweb⁠⁠⁠⁠ — We would also like to thank Anupam Gupta, the writer of "The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, a Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry" (Penguin India, 2024). You can buy the book here: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-rise-of-asian-paints/ — Credits Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Video Producers: Vijay Subramaniam, Vishnu S, Rajiv CN Audio Engineer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Editing and Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah Colorist: Pranav Bhat Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Himanshi, Jayesh Sahu On-Set Production: Veeresh, Chaitanya and team Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Set Design: Hritika, Saanvi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

  • #2
    March 22 · 2 hr 55 min

    Intermission E01 - Asian Paints (PART 1)

    Asian Paints was founded in 1942 by four young Gujaratis in a Bombay garage. Today, it controls more than half of India's paint market. This is the story of how that happened. The company was among the first to tap into the rural market, become a technology company before most people understood what that meant, crack the supply chain, and bring about a new era of Indian advertising. Now, Asian Paints is being met with renewed competition and aggression from Birla Opus, JSW Dulux and Berger Paints. Understanding why this market is so hard to take requires understanding of how it was built. — We also have an interactive webpage exploring Asian Paints' history with reading lists, infographics, and source notes: the-ken.com/intermission. — The full episode runs 6 hours and is split into two parts on podcast platforms. — About Intermission: Intermission, produced by The Ken, dives deep into the histories of iconic Indian companies. Intermission was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our season sponsor. Disclosure: Rainmatter Foundation is an investor in The Ken's parent company. — About The Ken:The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, startups and healthcare across India and Southeast Asia. Since our inception, we’ve published thousands of stories that have been widely discussed, debated and referenced. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. — Follow us on our socials: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/thekenweb⁠⁠⁠⁠ — We would also like to thank Anupam Gupta, the writer of "The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, a Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry" (Penguin India, 2024). You can buy the book here: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-rise-of-asian-paints/ — Credits Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Video Producers: Vijay Subramaniam, Vishnu S, Rajiv CN Audio Engineer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Editing and Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah Colorist: Pranav Bhat Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Himanshi, Jayesh Sahu On-Set Production: Veeresh, Chaitanya and team Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Set Design: Hritika, Saanvi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

Showing 1–7 of 7 episodes