Imperial Blue

KARNI Kot Sodawas would have been just another dot on the map of heritage havelis in India had it not been for 27-year-old Kunwar Vikramadit...

KARNI Kot Sodawas would have been just another dot on the map of heritage havelis in India had it not been for 27-year-old Kunwar Vikramaditya Singh Sodawas. In July last year, Sodawas hosted a 8216;Royal Soiree8217; at a glitzy Mumbai hotel: a high-profile, paid-for dinner attended by 250 industrialists and corporate heavyweights. The highlight of the evening was a somewhat yellowing little book: My Times In Africa, written by Sodawas8217; grandfather, Thakur Bishen Singh. It described how he prepared game meat using Rajasthani masalas and provided detailed recipes.

When 8216;Vikku8217; 8212; as Vikramaditya is known to friends 8212; chanced upon the book, he quickly acted on it. The recipes were tweaked a bit since hunting is now illegal in India, the big hotels roped in and soon, he had the purveyors of urbane pleasures literally eating out of his hands. Sodawas, the small-time jagir of Marwar, had finally arrived.

Fifty-five years after Independence, 31 years after the abolition of the privy purses, princely India 8212; the 21-gun-salute states as well as the minor thikranas and taluks on either ends of the social scale 8212; is reinventing itself in an entrepreneurial mode, but with the royal insignia stamped firmly in like a designer label. The younger generation of India8217;s former royals may have tripped into uncharted territory but they refuse to shake off their royal past. Instead, they use their status to its fullest potential.

So, Satyajit Khakhar of Jasdan, Gujarat, is fast emerging as one of the most sought-after cattle-breeders in Brazil, while Kapurthala8217;s Tikka Shatrujit Singh has turned his family8217;s passion for the Louis Vuitton label 8212; they are apparently one of the biggest patrons of the luxury label among the princely families 8212; on its head as its brand ambassador among the country8217;s new elite. Singh plans an exhibition of old Louis Vuitton trunks that used to be made for the Maharajas in December-January. As Samarjitsinh Gaekwad of Baroda likes to say, 8216;8216;One must stop seeing what we have as a white elephant and see it as a race horse, instead!8217;8217;

Kulsum Begum, a niece of Salar Jung, Nizam of Hyderabad, is now working full time with Maurya Sheraton as a food consultant

The younger Gaekwad apparently is a man who likes to follow his own advice. That the Barodas have a priceless inheritance with the largest privately owned collection of Ravi Varma paintings all of 38 at their Maharaja Fatehsinh Museum is well known. But the younger generation has great plans to carry it forward. Next February, not only are the paintings travelling to Mumbai to the National Gallery of Modern Art but will be accompanied by a fashion show exhibiting traditional Maharashtrian sarees, borrowing the theme from the Ravi Varmas. The Gaekwads have other plans too 8212; a golf course, with the Baroda Palace as the centrepiece, thus offering golf tourists some age-old charm. Plus a restaurant serving traditional royal cuisine at the club house.

If you would like to sample royalty, it is a good time to be around. Food 8212; as opposed to hoteliering that the earlier generation had taken to with such gusto8212; is one of the major areas which the younger royals are increasingly turning to. Jodhpur8217;s Shivraj Singh, for instance, took a break from his favourite pastime, polo, to host a food festival at an upmarket Delhi restaurant. As opposed to dad Bapji8217;s Marut Hotels, the festival was Singh8217;s own 8216;baby,8217; as he would like to say. Like the Sodawas8217; or even the 175 dinners that the Jaipurs host, it could be seen as an extension in the hoteliering business. A point that the erstwhile ruler of Kishengarh Brij Singh 8212; who is also planning a food festival in Delhi in November alongside a promotion of Kishengarh art at the Crafts Museum in the Capital 8212; likes to make: 8216;8216;Food is a part of our tradition and culture8230; but after September 11, with most heritage hotels hit, it offers another option to carry the business forward.8217;8217;

8220;One must stop seeing what we possess as a white elephant and regard it as a race horse instead!8221; says Samarjitsinh Gaekwad of Baroda

Even those royals not in the hospitality business are now tying up with various hotel chains and organising regional cuisine promotions. So, while Siddhi Kumari acknowledged she was not a 8216;foodie,8217; she nevertheless went ahead and held a Bikaneri food promotion at a five-star hotel in Delhi last year. Of course, you had to 8216;8216;ask the chef8217;8217; instead of the 8216;princess8217; as to what defines Bikaneri cuisine but the lady is undaunted, and she is now taking the 8216;royal food show8217; to Mumbai, this winter.

In Dungarpur, Yuvraj Harshvardhan Singh and Yuvrani Priyadarshini Singh who hosted several Rajasthani food festivals in Switzerland before she got married are now planning to take their cuisine all over India. So too, the 20-something Aliya Balasenor, of the one-time small principality in Gujarat, who is planning food festivals. Those who are not into food but still want to do something, will at the very least, make an appearance at a particular cuisine promo to 8216;8216;authenticate8217;8217; it.

Vikramaditya Singh of Kashmir has been credited with promoting polo as a mega corporate event

It is obvious the sudden burst in royal culinary activity is the easiest way for the younger royals to preserve their heritage and indeed keep the 8216;royal8217; tag alive. According to royal-watcher Umang Hutteesingh, such food promos contribute to awareness building of the 8216;royal8217; brand. 8216;8216;Till 15 years ago, fashion and food didn8217;t exist as art forms or revenue earners,8217;8217; he says. 8216;8216;However, they are important aspects of living today and they are simply cashing in.8217;8217;

There are those erstwhile royals who have gone full-time into finding a mass base for their cuisine, that they are now employed as professional chefs. Kulsum Begum, a niece of Salar Jung, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and married into the Mehmoodabad family of Lucknow, has now been working full-time with the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi, for the last one-and-half years.

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Another royal-watcher Malvika Singh of Seminar magazine, offers a solution. 8216;8216;People like Gaj Singh of Jodhpur showed how to reinvent themselves as successful entrepreneurs. It was only natural for the next generation to value add to existing assets.8221; According to Singh, what the younger royals need to do is find new joint venture partners and look out for growth in infrastructure to support their tourism-related enterprise.

The former younger royals know that in this brand-obsessed world, they have a great label to offer.

8216;Crest8217; fallen

Raghuvendra Rathore: The royal designer is not actually royal8212; he is a cousin of the Jodhpurs but still uses Jodhpur as his USP. Whether it be in his showroom or his bandgalas, or the newly introduced 8216;crest8217; that will now adorn his label.

8216;Nawab8217; N Hyder Kazmi: Last year, the 8216;Nawab8217; of Kakori had everyone eating out of his hands at a food fest in the Capital, hotselling his kebabs as well as 8216;designer8217; chikan kurtas. Only later did everyone find out that the Nawab was no nawab, that his 8216;palace8217; may well have been your average farmhouse and that Kakori was not even a principality.

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Masiuddin Tucy: The long-obscure descendant of India8217;s last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar too has found refuge in the family8217;s patent Lashkari cuisine as opposed to the more well-known 8216;Mughlai8217; cuisine. Tucy was hired as a consultant by the ITC hotel chain in Hyderabad five years ago, but it was only this year that his hotel began showcasing the cuisine in other cities too.