India has hardly been a stranger to luxury. History can recount several tales about the country’s proclivity towards the opulent. Till a couple of decades ago, that narrative would revolve around only its royalty: The maharajas and, later, the corporate and industrialist rajas.
For instance, in the 1930s, India famously accounted for a fifth of all Rolls Royce cars sold worldwide. The maharajas, in particular, made a beeline, and some with rather eccentric motives. It is even said that Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, on a visit to London, was seemingly insulted by the British makers’ refusal to accept his order. He promptly bought a consignment of three cars and converted them into garbage trucks.
First, the lack of quality retail space in India: There are only three malls that can be broadly classified as luxury—DLF Emporio (Delhi), Palladium (Mumbai, technically a mixed-use mall) and UB City (Bangalore). Nine new ‘luxury destinations’ are in the works and should open by 2016, according to Indiyeah, an in-house publication by Reliance Brands.
(This story appears in the 18 October, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)