Pill is out on Jio Cinema and the show focuses on a pharmaceutical company’s scandal where faulty medicines are circulated into the market. The show stars Ritesh Deshmukh and Pavan Malhotra in important roles. As soon as the show’s promos were released, people were curious if the events of the show were based on a true story and if the characters of the show had some connection to reality. One of the characters that has been most talked about is Brahma Gill played by Pavan Malhotra. While the show is a work of fiction, we could find some resemblance.
Brahma Gill Real Person from Pill on Jio Cinema
Brahma Gill from Pill is based on the former owners of Ranbaxy Laboratories, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, who have been fictionalized into this one character. There are many similarities between the show’s events and the lives of Malvinder and Shivinder who were also accused of malpractices in the pharma industry and having a part in making fraudulent medicines that put the lives of millions at risk all over the world. Currently, Malvinder and Shivinder are under arrest for their crimes.
Malvinder and Shivinder Singh were sons of Dr. Parvinder Singh who inherited the pharma giant from their father. It was under their leadership that Ranvaxy was involved in fraudulent practices that involved faking documents to certify sub-standard medicines. In regions where the regulations were not as strict, Ranbaxy used to submit ingredients from the ones that were used for regions with high regulations. This practice led to many substandard medicines being circulated in markets like Brazil, India, and the Middle East among other markets. Further, it was revealed that the ingredients used in the medicines were at times used from the lots that failed quality tests. These APIs or ingredients were often mixed with the ones that passed quality tests to create medicines that would contain harmful ingredients.
They sold their stake in Ranbaxy to the Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 but once the events of the scandal came out. Daiichi came back with a court case against the brothers and they had to pay a fine of $500 million for which they had to sell their assets including a stake in Fortis Healthcare, a company they founded by the name of Religare Wellness. On 11 October 2019, both brothers were arrested an have since been in judicial custody on account of an alleged fraud of Rs 740 crores.
Although the similarities have not been formally acknowledged by the makers of the series and the show has been heavily fictionalized, there seem to be similarities that could have inspired the character of Brahma Gill in our opinion. Do you think the events were similar too? Read this report by the Telegraph to know more