When Sergey Mavrodi said he was launching a new scheme in 2011, many people took it as a PR stunt aimed at capitalising on the impending release of PiraMMMida (seen here), a Russian language movie directed by Eldar Salavatov, starring Alexei Serebryakov.

While the name of the protagonist, played by Serebryakov, is Momantov, the story more closely follows the rise and fall of Mavrodi in 1990s post-communist Russia.

The screenplay itself is based on a short story called 'Piramida', or pyramid in Russian, written by Mavrodi himself.

The trailer of the movie shows a foreigner offering $50 billion to use the MMM brand name and its network. Momantov says, "Russia is not up for sale."

Mavrodi is not a distant villain, like those sinister men in James Bond movies.

When he launched his MMM2011 - a pyramidal money-making scheme - he also started MMM India.

Text: N Sundaresha Subramanian, Business Standard