PRS Oberoi: The man who reinvented a legacy
₹600 million, thrice that of its neighbour, it was the father’s turn to stagger. And the industry’s. ‘Five-star’ no longer sufficed.
A new classification had to be created, ‘super deluxe’. Biki insisted on it, also creating a new brand, ‘The Oberoi’—distinguished by hushed luxury, uncompromisingly top-end but decidedly not over-the-top. Biki’s equally distinctive contribution was the later Vilas brand.
The luxury tents of Rajvilas in heraldic Jaipur and its individualistic successors in Ranthambore; Agra, Udaipur and New Chandigarh. Here, Biki’s definition of luxury led to not just fantasy bathrooms, often with their own walled gardens, but also a year’s efforts in developing the Kama brand of exotic toiletries. The continuously massaged ‘Wow’ factor included tracking down—and getting treated—the injured bull in the bazaar that had so aroused a guest’s concern; the staff at Ranthambore’s Vanyavilas had gone to these lengths after the lady had checked out, and sent her an ‘action-taken’ email.
Customer delight is upped to customer orgasm. In 2002, Biki asked me to revise my 1992 biography of his father, Dare to Dream, because he “had been ill then and couldn’t give you my full attention". So, at the construction of Amarvilas—within sighing distance of the Taj Mahal—I saw firsthand the legendary vision and energy he put into every project.
He ordered the demolition and replacement of fixtures along an entire corridor because the lamps were ‘not at the optimum level’. Arguably, Shah Jahan was less pernickety and nowhere near as hands-on in the creation of his own masterpiece. Rattan Keswani, an Oberoi old hand, recalled the gargantuan restoration of The Cecil, Shimla.
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