'Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan!': Butter chicken stalwart Pritam's book out

They say sometimes that food is the way to a person’s heart. And Kulwant Singh Kohli succeeded in winning people over with his delicious fare at the popular Pritam restaurant in Mumbai's Dadar. The legacy of the hotelier, who passed away earlier this year in June, has been immortalised with the book Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan! that was unveiled on Thursday. When former Home Minister and ex-Maharashtra CM, Sushilkumar Shinde and the Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, grace the launch event, one can understand the impact that Kulwant Singh Kohli might have left on them. His grandson Abhayraj Singh Kohli, opened up on the launch event, terming the experience as ‘touching’, while revealing several anecdotes. From the book being discussed over a meal, Gopinath Munde naming his daughter Pritam after the hotel, and company’s plans to open a delivery platform under Kulwant Singh Kohli's name, Kohli Jr spoke about several things in an exclusive interaction. 

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“The book happened over a meal, ex-Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has been a friend of my granddad since he was a senior inspector. He said, ‘I need a table at your restaurant’. My granddad replied, ‘Why do you want a table? Come over, we will sit together?’ So he, along with some editors of Marathi newspapers came over; over drinks and dinner, they said that my granddad has a lot of knowledge and experience of how Bombay came to be Bombay, how people have come to Bombay with nothing and made their lives from here. They felt a book or at least a column should be written on this,” Abhayraj Singh Kohli, Director of Pritam Group of Hotels, tells Republic TV. 

This was mooted in October 2017, and from January 2018, Kulwant Singh Kohli had started writing a column for Loksatta. Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan! is a compilation of all the articles that he has written for the newspaper. Plus, a few more.  

Kulwant Singh Kohli has been known as someone who gifted Butter Chicken to Mumbai. However, food will play only a minor role in the book. Abhayraj Singh Kohli shares, “It is basically about the different people that touched him in his life. Be it actors, people who came for dinner, or producers who came to Bombay with nothing, and made their life. All these contacts were built from the restaurant. The book does not have much about the food.” 

Not just Sushilkumar Shinde, Kulwant Singh Kohli hobnobbed with the bigwigs of the Maharashtra’s political arena. Late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde, who served as a minister in the PM Narendra Modi cabinet, was so fond of the restaurant that he named his daughter Pritam after the restaurant.  “When Munde had come over to the restaurant, that’s when we found out that his wife was pregnant with Pritam. So he decided that be it a girl or a boy, we will name the child Pritam. He was extremely close to my grandfather, because his wife, who is Pramod Mahajan’s sister (Pradnya Munde), used to tie a rakhi to my grandfather also. So Pramod Mahajan ji, Gopinath Munde ji and my granddad were three best friends,” Abhayraj Singh Kohli says. 

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Bollywood love

Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan! is not the Hindi cinema connection to Kulwant Singh Kohli and Pritam Hotel. Not just politicians and high-ranking officers, the Pritam Hotel used frequented by major Bollywood stars of that era like Dharmendra, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dev Anand, Jagjit Singh and Yash Chopra. Kohli reveals, “At that time, the entire film industry used to shoot around here because all the studios were out here, around Dadar and Parel. Later on, the industry moved to the other side of the city. Some of the stars still do come, but how those living nearby would come, that does not happen anymore.” 

Kulwant Singh Kohli’s grandson reveals that emotions did run high at the book launch. “Yesterday's event was very touching for all of us. My father and my uncle spoke how the book was something he (Kulwant Singh Kohli) always wanted to see. Sushilkumar Shinde spoke about the memories with my granddad. Also, my dad did not know Marathi, and the person who used to translate his work, spoke about how many hours he would spend with my grandfather and how they got close.”  

Kohli Jr credits Kohli Sr for everything, “My grandfather was basically my role model. So whatever I am today and whatever I do today in business is all because of him. He kept me very close to him and trained me completely.  My work ethics is all because of him.”  

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The book was also not an afterthought after Kulwant Singh Kohli’s death and had been close to finalisation much before that, Abhayraj Singh Kohli revealed. In fact, they were already in the process of the book’s English and Hindi translations, which will soon hit the shelves. Professor Nitin Arekar has been credited as a writer on the book.  

The love for Kulwant Singh Kohli has not diminished one bit, even after his passing. “Even today, we get fan mails from people, from a lot of people that he has touched throughout his life. The number of people he met in his entire life is unbelievable. He was also the Sheriff of Bombay. People keep coming in, and as time goes by, you realise how many people’s lives he touched. It is really humbling."  

Another tribute to Kulwant Singh Kohli is an indicator of the growing times. “We’re looking at starting a new delivery platform, for butter chicken and more, under his name. So we’re looking at how to go about that right now. This will be pan-Bombay,” Kohli signs off. 

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