Sameer Nair, Group CEO, Balaji Telefilms

We have been sitting in his first floor cabin for just 10 minutes, when Sameer Nair walks in. All six feet of him. But, as he dials an office extension, calling for a “big cup of coffee”, he tells us the spurt in height came rather late in his life.
“Through school, I was shorter than most others in my class,” says the 50-year-old. “In college, I shot up by a foot. With height, my perspective on life changed too,” he adds. “I had spent all my life looking up. Now, it was my turn to look down.” With this, came a new persona. The thick-rimmed geeky glasses were replaced by contact lenses and the “studious look that convinced him that he was born to be a physicist” gave way to long hair and ‘cooler’ jeans. In fact, today, for the interview, the Group CEO of Balaji Telefilms — he completes a year this month — has dressed casually in faded denims and a sky blue shirt.