Air freight superstar
By Marcus Schick I 5 minute read
09/04/2025
Logistics for the pharmaceutical industry is already demanding. Rajnikanth Alluri also has to contend with being named after one of his country’s all-time cinema legends. But the Air Freight Manager at DACHSER India takes it in his stride as both a challenge and an obligation.
There’s nothing he can’t do: breathtaking stunts, emotional journeys, pain, love, drama, jealousy, and—his trademark—flicking a cigarette in the air and catching it in his mouth. We’re talking about Shivaji Rao Gaikwad, known as Rajinikanth, an acting icon of Indian cinema. For decades, he has captivated audiences with his incomparable personality and charisma. Every child across India knows and loves him. Superstar Rajinikanth is a living legend.
This short digression into Indian film history leads directly to DACHSER’s branch in Hyderabad in the southern Indian state of Telangana. With a population of almost seven million, India’s fourth largest city (after Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru) is an up-and-coming industrial metropolis with a focus on biotechnology and pharmaceutical production. More than 40 percent of the country’s pharmaceuticals are produced here, which explains why the city is known as the “Bulk Drug Capital of India” and “Vaccine Capital of the World.”
And that’s where the Rajinikanth phenomenon comes in: Rajnikanth Alluri has been working in the air freight department of DACHSER Air & Sea Logistics in Hyderabad since 2018. When he joined DACHSER, this Air Freight Manager with the famous first name already had over two decades of industry experience under his belt. But unlike his famous namesake, Rajnikanth Alluri is no brash adventurer. With his sober demeanor and his unparalleled dedication to his duties and to customer service, not to mention his in-depth operational knowledge and excellent industry and customer contacts, Rajnikanth Alluri quickly became a pillar of the air freight team.
From the subcontinent to the whole world
“We’ve acquired a great deal of expertise in air freighting pharmaceuticals to global destinations,” Rajnikanth Alluri says. Most of the shipments are destined for countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. “In our day-to-day cooperation with the airport authorities and ground handling companies, we focus on the responsible handling of all types of transports within active and passive cold chains,” he says, describing his main area of responsibility. This is done using special temperature-controlled containers as well as other passive packaging solutions, such as special insulated containers, thermal blankets, or phase-change materials; the latter store a high proportion of heat and cold, and release the energy as heat in phases as required. What all these solutions have in common is the aim of maintaining the required temperature range during transportation.
Every bit the conscientious and meticulous air freight expert, Rajnikanth Alluri is just the man to deal with all this. Pharmaceutical logistics isn’t an arena for stunts or for pushing physical limits—the kind of things his namesake in the film business is known for. “For the most part, pharmaceutical shipments have to be transported under temperature-controlled conditions of either +2 to +8 degrees Celsius or +15 to +25 degrees Celsius,” Rajnikanth Alluri says. In this demanding air freight segment, the key is to ensure absolutely strict compliance with all guidelines. One such reference point is known as good distribution practice (GDP): this standard stipulates that the quality and integrity of medicines must be maintained throughout the transportation and distribution chain. Eleven DACHSER locations worldwide bear this seal of quality. “In addition to GDP certification, DACHSER’s in-house quality management system, or QMS, is another reason why our Hyderabad branch is now one of five locations in the global DACHSER network that’s CEIV Pharma-certified by IATA,” Rajnikanth Alluri says.
Take a look behind the scenes in our series of articles “Opportunities in logistics” and get to know the professions and people who keep global supply chains running.
We’ve acquired a great deal of expertise in air freighting pharmaceuticals to global destinations.
A job with responsibility
As an Air Freight Manager, what Rajnikanth Alluri finds particularly thrilling about pharmaceutical transports is both how demanding they always are and how they confer a special responsibility on logistics specialists. “Pharmaceuticals often have a very high commercial value. And the fact that API—active pharma ingredient—shipments are classified as dangerous goods only adds to the complexity of handling them and ensuring smooth execution.” APIs are used in the manufacture of medicines.
For Rajnikanth Alluri’s DACHSER air freight team in Hyderabad, it also entails strict adherence to their own QMS for subcontractor management, training, and audits (internal and external). That includes CAPA and deviation management. In quality management for the pharmaceutical industry, CAPA stands for corrective and preventive action. For the air freight experts, it’s a question of having processes in place for dealing with errors and vulnerabilities or with unplanned deviations from the standards. All with the aim of systematically avoiding them.
“This setup means we can guarantee the quality and safety of our customers’ products during transport and handling, while at the same time ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements,” Rajnikanth Alluri explains.
What might Rajinikanth the screen hero have to say about sticking so consistently to the rules and planning? At this question, Rajnikanth Alluri has to smile. “Rajinikanth doesn’t stand just for breakneck action and going over the top. He’s a personality that people can identify with and admire at the same time. A real role model. And that’s exactly why I’m very happy to bear this name and why I try to do exemplary work.”
