COLOMBO – R. Rajamahendran, known as ‘Kili Maharaja’, Chairman of the Capital Maharaja Group, owners of Sirasa, MTV and Shakthi television and several radio channels, died early Sunday (25) morning, after a brief illness.
Reports said the leading businessman, who was also director of several companies affiliated with the Maharaja Group, had been receiving treatment at a private hospital in Colombo for COVID-19 related infection.
His funeral was held in Colombo later in the day.
Rajandram Rajamahendran is the second son of Sinnathamby Rajandram, one of the founders of The Capital Maharaja Organization Limited. Born on May 19, 1943, he was an old boy of Royal College Colombo, and at the age of 16, joined his father at the Maharaja Organization. At the age of 21, following their father’s demise, he and his brother took on the reigns of the group with little or no formal training in how to run a business.
A NewsFirst tribute described Rajamahendran as not just a man, but a chapter of Sri Lanka’s post-independence history, who from the time he took over his father’s business to today, had built what is not only a world-renowned, diverse conglomerate but also an organization with a civic consciousness.
Listed among Rajamahendran’s many noteworthy endeavours is the setting up of Sri Lanka’s first BOI joint-venture in the 1970s; the construction of Sri Lanka’s largest hydro-electric power infrastructure; being the silent force behind Sri Lanka receiving ICC Status in cricket; making mobile telephony available to the average Sri Lankan by founding Dialog GSM; setting up Sri Lanka’s largest media network that has differentiated itself through innovation and striving to change the lives of millions of Sri Lankans through the Gammadda Movement he founded.
-ENCL