Nithin Kamath on Sunday shared a video from over 10 years ago when he had organised a fake police raid at the Zerodha office in Bengaluru as a prank.
"We carried out a fake police raid in our office to see how the team reacts to extreme stress and to have some fun, of course," the Zerodha co-founder and CEO stated with the clip that has all the makings of a Bollywood masala movie -- rowdy police officers, clamouring reporters with their camera persons, confused employees, and a guy who wore a helmet because he didn't want the police to see his face.
Nithin Kamath's team first set up hidden cameras in the office and then arranged for actors who would play the cigarette-smoking, pan-spitting "goon-type" police officers. The "raid" was carried out when Kamath was "out for a meeting".
The fake officers and reporters forced themselves into the Zerodha support office in Bengaluru, brandishing an apparent Bombay High Court order that demanded that employees of the stock broking firm be arrested and produced before it following allegations of a ponzi scheme and financial fraud.
Since one of the goals was to gauge how employees react to stressful situations, the fake raid did not disappoint. One of the main characters of the show turned out to be the head of client operations, Hanan, who was dubbed as the "angry man" in the scenario as he kept arguing with the "police", demanding clarification. Another employee who stood out was the head of operations, Venu. He kept a level head and tried to work things with the "authorities" while trying to keep other employees calm.
The climax witnessed the "angry man" getting angrier after all the employees were rounded up in one room and locked up until the "absconding boss" Nithin Kamath showed up with crackers to announce that it was all a prank.
"I was too busy pissing my pants to realise what was happening," said one employee after the raid was revealed to be fake. "I thought I had delayed payment in stamp duty and that's why all this was happening," said another employee.
Meanwhile, the video generated a lot of interest on Instagram.
"That was good," said Cred founder and CEO Kunal Shah.
"Hahaha... Craziest team building activity I've seen," commented one user while another said, "Only lucky ones get a job in Zerodha. When the CEO is so crazy, work-life would be so much fun."
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