There's No Stopping London's Indian Billionaires. Ma
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Bring on the Boll ygarchs n July a powerful entrepreneurs like Karan (now Lord) British delegation, Launching beers, Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer and adviser including David becoming peers, to Prime Ministers Blair, Brown and Cameron, George Cameron on India. Born in Hyderabad in Osborne and CEOs running NGOs and 1961, Bilimoria comes from a distinguished from BAE, Barclays military family. His great-grandfather, Bank, News dancing till dawn – Dhanjisha Bilimoria, was a senior police Corporation and officer who arrested Mahatma Gandhi on Vodafone, visited India. there’s no stopping three occasions. His grandfather, Nasservanji The Prime Minister’s London’s Indian Bilimoria, commanded the 1st Battalion message was that of the Madras Regiment; in 1947 he and the Britain was very keen billionaires. Mark battalion were posted to protect the great to trade with one of pacifist and nationalist. When Colonel the world’s thriving Hollingsworth and Bilimoria reported for duty, Gandhi asked economies. How him if he was related to Dhanjisha Bilimoria. fortunes have changed M A Nicholas meet When he said yes, Gandhi replied: ‘There in a mere century: 100 years ago, Britain was the new maharajas must be some mistake. Your father arrested the greatest of imperial powers and India me three times and you’ve been sent to was the jewel in the crown. When the Prince protect me. I don’t feel very safe with you.’ of Wales visited Jaipur in 1876, the local word, according to his mother. He was given Lord Bilimoria’s father led Gurkha maharaja Ram Singh painted the entire town a battery-operated Ferrari when he was four regiments after the Second World War, but pink in honour of His Royal Highness. and now owns 260 vintage motors – notably the young Karan was never tempted by the IIn 1911, the city of Mumbai built a huge a 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost – and the military, he told me in an exclusive interview triumphal arch by the sea to commemorate Force India Formula One team. Then there is with Tatler: ‘My father used to joke that the visit of King George V. the obligatory yacht, a 311-foot party boat the best way to persuade his children not While Britain burrows its way through an called Indian Empress. His four private jets to join the army was to show them his avalanche of debt, India’s economy is booming are notable for their impressionist paintings, paycheck.’ He was already influenced by with a growth rate of nearly nine per cent. granite bars and a walk-in wardrobe in his the renowned commercial grandeur of Many predict this will be India’s century. bedroom which allows him to emerge Hyderabad – which, after all, once boasted And many rich Indians are enjoying that fact dressed for that evening’s entertainment. the richest man in the world, the Nizam here in England. And on the ground, there are homes in of Hyderabad, whose wealth in today’s terms Today there are 69 Indian billionaires, with Holland Park, Stowe Castle near Silverstone, was double that of Bill Gates. a combined worth of $221.1 billion. And as an estate in Berkshire and another castle in At 16, Bilimoria was despatched to Hebron Cameron attempts to woo India Inc, many Scotland. No wonder Mallya is known as School, a British-style boarding school near Bollygarchs have already embraced Britain the Richard Branson of India. This lifestyle Ootacomund in the south of India, and by moving to London and purchasing some has inevitably invoked comparisons with then graduated from Osmania University. of its grandest homes. Take Vijay Mallya, the Russian oligarchs. In fact, the Indian In 1981, aged 20, he moved to the UK and owner of Kingfisher Beer and Kingfisher super-rich have little in common with the qualified as an accountant, before reading Airlines. A glass of Ferrari Carano wine in Russian tycoons, many of whom made law at Cambridge, where he was captain one hand and a Café Crème cigar in the their fortunes by capitalising on the chaotic of the polo team. Lord Bilimoria built his other, he’s a flashy peacock, with sparkling privatisation of lucrative state assets in oil, commercial career from scratch. In 1989, diamond solitaire studs that once belonged gas and metals. The Bollygarchs have earned he moved into a small flat on Fulham to his mother in each ear, and an immense their millions and many are generous Palace Road and founded an import-export diamond bracelet protruding from beneath to charity. business, A&K International, with an old his bespoke French-cuff shirt. In fact, for every extravagant Bollygarch family Indian friend, Arjun Reddy. They Mallya also loves cars, and ‘car’ was his first like Mallya, there are more ascetic self-made imported polo sticks for £1 from India and 000 Tatler Photographed by maRK C O’flahERTY O’neill DOMINIC ALAN SAM BARKER, DAVIDSON, PICTURES: RESEARCH Bring on the Boll ygarchs Clockwise from above, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and his wife Usha, third and fourth from left, with their daughter Vanisha and son-in-law Amit Bhatia; Cobra Beer tycoon Lord Bilimoria, photographed for Tatler in his London offices, October 2010; Cyrus Vandrevala and his wife Priya; Vijay Mallya at Stowe Castle Tatler 000 Clockwise from above, Reita Gadkari, photographed for Tatler at her London house, October 2010; Reita and Vilas Gadkari with their children Pia and Arjun in Umbria, 2010; Raj Gill and his wife Priyanka at the ARTiculate Gala chaired by Reita Gadkari, September 2010; artist’s impression of ArcelorMittal Orbit, Anish Kapoor’s steel tower for the London Olympics, towards which Lakshmi Mittal’s company is contributing £16 million; Usha Mittal at the Mittals’ Kensington house, photographed for Tatler, June 2010; Lord Bilimoria and his wife Heather 000 Tatler sold them to Giddens and Harrods for £15 show a substantial profit, he assures me Annabel’s in their Bentley. In 2010 the (polo sticks had originally been imported proudly and with a detectable note of relief. Vandrevalas again made generous donations from Argentina but a shortage had developed Lord Bilimoria typifies the Bollygarchs: at the Raisa Gorbachev Gala and also helped because of the Falklands War trade embargo). commercially focused, enterprising and fund the Elephant Family, a charity run by The young entrepreneurs also imported generous to charities. Another example is the Duchess of Cornwall’s brother Mark hand-embroidered silk jackets from Hyderabad the 37-year-old Cyrus Vandrevala, the Shand to save elephants in India – 261 and sold them for £500 to Harabels (owned dashing and urbane CEO of Intrepid Capital model elephants were positioned across by Tina Green), Princess Diana’s favourite Partners, a US-based private equity firm. London and their eventual auction raised boutique on Beauchamp Place, which His wife is the glossy Valentino-wearing £4 million. ‘It is essential to India’s heritage,’ promptly sold them for £1,000 each. Priya Hiranandani, whose father built a vast said the couple as they joked with Sarah, Later that year Bilimoria got the opportunity fortune from property development and, Duchess of York, and Goldie Hawn to realise his commercial dream – to produce later, call centres. at the party. a beer suitable for drinking with an Indian In early 2008 the Vandrevalas moved to Indeed, the Vandrevalas love a bash. Every meal. ‘I found most lagers very gassy, bland London and settled in Claridge’s for six year they throw a children’s Christmas party and harsh. Basically, they were difficult months while they looked for somewhere to at the Ritz. One press release read: ‘The to drink,’ he tells me. ‘The combination of live. Eventually they found a £20 million Vandrevalas are throwing a Seasonal Tea fizzy lager and spicy food bloated you, house in Holland Park and set up an office Party at the Ritz Hotel for their children and making it quite an unpleasant experience.’ He at 199 Knightsbridge, the high-security their children’s friends. The children are approached Mysore Breweries in Bangalore, luxury apartment block. They got to know being collected by Mr Vandrevala’s liveried which agreed to develop his new beer for many of the British Establishment. Nicholas chauffeur in either his Bentley or his import, and called it ‘Panther’. But just two Soames – a confidant of the Prince of Lamborghini. We are not sure if Father weeks before the first shipment left India, Wales, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill Christmas is being collected by his chauffeur.’ the market research showed that customers Another renowned party lover is hated the name ‘Panther’ but loved ‘Cobra’. powerhouse Reita Gadkari, wife of one of After two years Bilimoria’s business was Later that evening, Europe’s top hedgefund managers, Vilas delivering more than 1,000 cases of Cobra a Gadkari, a partner at Brevan Howard Asset month to 100 restaurants in London. For the Management, overseeing a £27 billion fund. the Vandrevalas next 15 years there was rapid growth, and Gadkari was a founding partner of Rubicon, private joy – in 1993 he married Heather gave Dougray Scott a fund set up by eight former Salomon Walker, a South African graduate from Brothers traders (he was managing director Rhodes University who was a teacher at Hill a lift to Annabel’s of Salomon Brothers in the UK). House prep school in Knightsbridge when Dressed in designer jeans and cashmere they met. There were weddings on three in their Bentley from Brunello Cucinelli, Reita radiates continents: a Zoroastrian Parsi ceremony in positive energy when she meets us at the Sloane Square, an Anglican church wedding and a Conservative MP – was hired as a Connaught.