Journalism of Courage
It was the call that would change his life, but Saravanan Venkatachalam thought it was not important and decided not to attend it. Venkatachalam, a Chennai native, was searching for his car in a busy Abu Dhabi parking lot on Monday evening when he got a call from an unknown landline number.
Little did he know that on the other end of the calls were Big Ticket hosts Richard and Bouchra Yamani, trying to tell the 44-year-old engineer that he had just become a millionaire!
Only after his wife and friends started calling him, Venkatachalam realised something was different.
“It was a landline number, and I didn’t feel like returning it. Later, my wife and friends started calling repeatedly and that’s when I realised something unusual was happening,” Venkatachalam told Khaleej Times.
So the next time the phone rang, he picked it up, and Venkatachalam was told that he had just won Dh 25 million (Rs 60 crore) Big Ticket jackpot.
According to organisers, the hosts repeatedly tried to contact Saravanan live on air, but their calls went unanswered as his phone was on Do Not Disturb mode during work hours. “Come on, Saravanan, please pick up the call,” the hosts were heard saying, as the audience watched in suspense.
Venkatachalam initially refused to believe it, assuming his wife and friends were playing a prank on him.
It took a few more confirmations before he finally believed that his life had been changed forever.
“At first, I thought my friends and family were playing a prank. Even after hearing my name, I couldn’t believe it. There might be many people named Saravanan, I thought,” he said.
Venkatachalam, who moved to the UAE in 2019, has been trying his luck at the Big Ticket for the past six years. According to him, it was after a former colleague won a prize that he became interested in Big Ticket draws.
Like many expats, Venkatachalam started buying tickets often, pooling the amount among friends and colleagues.
The winning ticket, too, was purchased by 25 friends on October 30, during the ‘buy one, get one free’ promotion. The 25 friends will now share the jackpot, making them all millionaires.
With the newfound fortune, Venkatachalam said his goals are clear – secure his children’s future,
“I had secured the future of my children. The only thing on my mind is their education,” said Venkatachalam, who is a father of two girls, aged 11 and 6, said.
Established in 1992 at Abu Dhabi International Airport, Big Ticket remains one of the Gulf’s most iconic raffles, known for turning dreams into reality.
