MUMBAI: “Can I catch up on some sleep just for a few hours,” was the first message Anshuman Thakur typed to a senior colleague around on noon right after he finished a media call with Ajit Mohan, Facebook ’s head in India.Thakur, a former telecoms rainmaker at NM-Rothschild-and-Morgan Stanley-turned-head of Strategy and Planning at Reliance, had been up on the phone since 4 am, fine tuning the final raft of documents hours before Facebook announced its strategic $5.7 billion partnership with Reliance early on Wednesday early morning.A muggy Mumbai night coupled with the excitement of bringing home a deal that has been on the works for over a year made it equally hard to switch off totally in the final hours. And this was by far the most high profile deal of Thakur’s career. The fact that it was getting baked bang in the middle of a global pandemic had added to the complexity.And truth be told Corona had tripped up the plans. Well almost.Thakur was to fly to Facebook’s headquarters at Menlo Park along with his bankers, lawyers and colleagues on 16th of March to start crucial negotiating with his Facebook counterpart Raj Singh after the non-binding term sheet got signed in January.A secret code name – Project Redwood -- was also conjured up for the core deal team of around 30, perhaps in sync with its deep California connect. Just like Sycamore, Sequoia or Oregon Ash, Box and White Adler, Redwood is a popular tree to native California, home to Facebook.The Silicon Valley poster boy last September also had expanded its corporate home spending a billion dollars with a 525,000 square-foot new swanky building building called MPK 21, that was designed by architect Frank Gehry to seat about 3,000 employees. The redwood forest in a courtyard and the 3.6-acre rooftop garden along with a tiered outdoor amphitheater akin to a botanical garden had etched deep resonance to many.But suddenly the world was under lockdown . Skies were getting shut, borders sealed. The dreaded pandemic was everwhere.Till then it was relatively smooth. Legal, tax dilligence had begun in full earnest by February under the watchful eyes of RIL old hand K Raja Ramachandran. Commercial deal was completed prior. By then, lawyers --- AZB and Davis Poke for Reliance, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Hogan Lovells for Facebook had joined tax auditors PWC and the two lead bankers Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.Reliance and their advisors at Morgan Stanley, led by Michael Grimes, their global co-head technology investment banking had opened up the data room around second week of March. From India, telecoms-media-technology banker Kamal Yadav was acting as the pointsman on ground but a face to face meeting was absolutely essential “to connect the dots and cross the tees.”Thakur did not speak to ET for this story that was pieced together after talking to at least half a dozen people who were directly involved.The lockdown suddenly threw everything out of gear. “Only VCs were the way out,” said an official involved. The first such “virtual meeting” after the aborted March meeting took place around the weekend before Prime Minister Modi announced a nationwide lockdown on March 25th.“The aim was to make the announcement by March 31st.” quipped another deal insider. “That did not happen but we are not far out either.”Reliance too needed some good news. For seven years chairman Mukesh Ambani had been on a $100 billion spending spree expanding petrochemicals and building out the world’s largest 4G telecoms network. But a bloated balance sheet was becoming a headache. A deal with Aramco has been still hanging as is its $8 billion Brookfield InvIT transaction.A new technology partner for Jio to leverage the commerce and retail backbone that Reliance was banking on to break the bank was the right medicine the doctor had ordered.Preliminary discussions with Google had also taken place but the search giant wanted a chunkier trade and bigger rights. It fell through early on.What followed was weeks of intense dealmaking via video conferencing via Blue Jeans and Zoom in spite of the time difference between Mumbai and California.“Manoj Modi would only come in to fill in the big strategic issues. Even on Facebook side, they would circle back with Zuk (Zukerberg),” said another official. “Once at around 8 am IST and again around 9 PM IST, we would regroup to thrash out the nitty gritty,” said officials in the deal team. “Afternoons would be relatively free or would wrap up outstanding issues.”Even then, uncertainties on the global macro picture loomed ominously in the backdrop. Facebook was convinced about the long term strategic fit but “all of a sudden, discussions on valuations also included the impact of the lockdown on business, turnaround timelines what happens if the lockdown continues,” added another official.Morgan Stanley had came into the picture in the second half of last year having missed out on the Aramco mandate. The Wall Street bank had advised Sony last year when Zee Entertainment was in play. That deal fell apart but Morgan got Sony to talk to Reliance to merge the entertainment business as well. That deal is also in the final laps.But sources say Mukesh Ambani and Mark Zukerberg had initially toyed with the idea of a collaboration almost 14 months back. Gen Next Akash and Manoj Modi, Mukesh’s confidante, were also part of the A Team to front the dialogue. Ajit Mohan’s appointment as an MD and Country Head in India, added heft to their presence and reaffirmed the commitment.“No longer would anyone blame us for not investing enough dollars in India,” quipped an official. “This cheque should silence many.”