Breaking the Code

Kanwal Rekhi was the first Indian American founder and CEO to take a venture-backed company public on NASDAQ in 1987. He has mentored hundreds of aspiring businessmen through the IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE), a global network for Indian entrepreneurs he co-founded. People call him the “Godfather of Silicon Valley’s Indian Mafia.”

But to filmmaker Ben Rekhi, Kanwal Rekhi was also a dad. As Ben and co-director Swetlana document his father’s larger-than-life immigrant success story in the CAAM-funded documentary Breaking the Code, he also lifts the curtain on some of the family’s personal challenges, including his mother’s lymphatic cancer, which took hold shortly after his parents’ picture-perfect 50th anniversary party. The illness debilitates her and forces her family to confront her long-buried struggles with depression. Often shot like a home video, this intimate portrait of a Bay Area tech pioneer is a raw look at the rewards and sacrifices of the immigrant hustle.