There’s hardly a better escape from reality than Bollywood.

India’s mammoth film industry is known for churning out garish musicals where lovers break into song and the traffic of Mumbai inexplicably leads to the Swiss Alps. And so it should be interesting to see if Raj Rajaratnam, accused of being involved in one of the largest insider trading cases in a generation, turns up for the premiere of “Today’s Special” on Nov. 11.

Rajaratnam, after all, was one of the investors in the movie, according to a person familiar with the matter. The movie is described as a “heart warming food comedy” about an aspiring New York chef. Rajaratnam’s younger brother, Rengan, is the executive producer, according to credits listed at Internet Movie Database. At one time, Rengan also worked as a managing general partner of Galleon Management. He previously managed Sedna Capital, a hedge fund spun off Galleon, which shut down in 2007

“Today’s Special” depicts an aspiring chef, Samir, who has to put his culinary dreams on hold to take over his family restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens, when his father falls ill. Samir had dreams of being a top chef at a fancy New York City restaurant, but he’s passed over for the job and ends up taking over his parent’s joint Tandoori Palace. The film stars well-known Bollywood actor, Naseeruddin Shah.

Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of hedge fund Galleon Group, was born and raised in Sri Lanka, an island nation off India’s coast and the site of a long-running civil war. He studied engineering at the University of Sussex in England and graduated from Wharton in 1983.

The Nov. 11 debut of the movie Rajaratnam backed is shaping up to be a gilded bash. It will be the feature flick at a film festival sponsored by Mihindra Indo-American Arts Council, featuring a red carpet premier in New York City and a gala benefit dinner where tables for 10 cost as much as $25,000. The premier is expected to be held as advertised, a person with knowledge of the event said.

This is the second movie with connections to a financial scandal. The low budget film “Chooch” was funded by private equity investor David Leuschen, co-founder of Riverstone, which was allegedly caught up in the pay to play scandal.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/10/27/the-galleon-groups-bollywood-connection/