Nadar

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Rajgopal's story is that the odds were stacked against him from the very start.

And Rajgopal was a man who came from very humble beginnings and Rajgopal was from the Nadar caste and the Nadar caste is classified as a backward class in Tamil Nadu.

Radhika Radhakrishnan is a feminist scholar, activist and an expert in the caste system and civil society organisations in India.

Cast is not something that you typically choose.

Historically, vegetarian cuisine is the preserve of the socially higher status Brahmin caste.

But Radhika says that Rajgopal wanted to shake things up.

When Raj Gopal set up Saravana Bhavan as a pure veg restaurant, as a member of the Nadar caste, he wouldn't even have been allowed to eat in most Brahmin restaurants, let alone run one.

It's a bold move, and at first it appears doomed to failure.