The spectacular fall of P Rajagopal, India's 'Dosa King' who founded Saravana Bhavan

CHENNAI: P. Rajagopal's story has it all: rags to riches, the visionary creator of a trailblazing restaurant chain - and having a romantic rival murdered after some fateful cosmic advice.

On Sunday, the founder of Saravana Bhavan, the eatery found in India and beyond - from Leicester Square to Lexington Avenue via Singapore, Sydney and Stockholm - is due to begin a life sentence.

Rajagopal, 71, always dressed in white with a strip of sandalwood paste on his forehead, is the pious son of an onion trader from a village in Tamil Nadu.

In 1981, having opened a grocer's shop in Chennai - then known as Madras - he took the brave step of opening his first restaurant at a time when eating out was unusual for most Indians.

The winning formula was, and remains, dosas, vadas and idlis, which taste homemade, and are affordable.

The concept spread beyond India, with around 80 outlets abroad today catering mostly to the homesick Indian diaspora in the United States, the Gulf, Europe and Australia.

He also treats his staff generously, giving even the lowest-ranking employees benefits like health insurance. In return, they adoringly call him "annachi" ("elder brother").

Alongside Hindu gods, the restaurants invariably have two pictures of him on the wall: one with his sons, who now run the business - and one with his trusted spiritual guru.

But his beliefs, by no means unusual in India, proved to be his undoing.

In the early 2000s, Rajagopal reportedly took an astrologer's advice to make a fateful decision - to take as his third wife, the daughter of an employee he had his eye on.

The young woman in question was already married and rejected his advances, but Rajagopal is not a man used to taking no for an answer.

Threats, beatings and exorcisms directed at the woman, her husband and her family over months all failed, and in 2001 - after one failed attempt - the husband was murdered on Rajagopal's orders.

In 2004, he was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years. On appeal, he was convicted of murder and the sentence increased to life, a decision then upheld by the Supreme Court in March.

He is meant to surrender by July 7 and spend the rest of his life behind bars.