Step into the ‘Thalaivaa Lounge’ on the third floor of the incubation cell at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and you will feel all stress leave you, even if you are not particularly a fan of the Superstar.
Larger than life cut-outs of actor Rajinikanth from some of his most memorable movies welcome you into the den. You can practise Manickam’s inimitable style of driving the autorickshaw. Or enact the scene from Padaiyappa where he pulls down the swing and makes himself at home. And there are sketches of the actor from Enthiran (Robot in Hindi), as well as a host of black and white sketches of him from his older films.
Tamaswati Ghosh, the chief executive officer of the cell, said the idea was to enable people from offices to take a break.
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Priya Mohan, communications manager at the cell, said the idea itself was incubated in the office during a casual conversation between Ms. Ghosh and Rajendra Mootha, the chief operating officer. “We were discussing the kind of breakout areas we should have as many here are cooped up in their offices all day. We wanted it to be a place where they could have informal meetings,” she said.
The space was envisioned by Chennai-based architects Varsha and Pradeep. “Our vision is that most of the time, informal meetings are all about igniting and ideating concepts that can be transformed into reality. The youngsters have seen what the actor has achieved and are familiar with him,” Mr. Mootha said.
Ms. Mohan said the aim was “to create something that was not very ‘IIT-type’. The idea appealed as it was close to Chennai and had a fun element to it.”
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