Pan-Indian Movies to Pan-Indian Snacks: The Rise of the Pan-Indian Telugu Entrepreneur

“You can take me out of Guntur, but you cannot take Guntur out of me.” Thus, every time I visit a city in the United States, my first stop is Patel Brothers to buy some desi snacks, etc. (The ones I bought at the Hyderabad airport would have been emptied by the time I landed). With 54 stores spread across the States, they have truly become a Pan-American chain—a success story that Harvard may someday document as a case study for their MBA students.

Talking about being Pan-something, I realized that Telugu entrepreneurs are not just making Pan-Indian movies like “Pushpa” and “RRR” but are now also producing Pan-Indian snacks. As I was walking to the third row in my favorite supermarket towards the snack section, I saw a brand named “Batha Kani.” Intrigued, I immediately picked it up. This term, like ‘Gupshup’ in Hindi, means chit-chat. Now one can imagine Haldiram or Bikanervala branding a snack as Gupshup, or PepsiCo branding their latest snack as Chitchat (after Kitkat, why not?), but for someone to brand a snack as “Batha Kani?” Wow. Simply wow. This delighted me to no end, and I immediately picked it up and saw “Raju Namkeen” on the top! No wonder.

On a more serious note, it’s fascinating to see a regional term from the South being embraced as a brand name on a national scale, reflecting cultural integration in our hugely diverse nation that has a distinct bias towards Hindi and Hinglish.

Hyderabad is now home to the second largest number of High Net-Worth Individuals in India. After years of being mocked by Mumbaikars as “Punjagutta Promoters,” it’s almost like payback time.

May Bhagwan always bless our entrepreneurial spirit.

Hari’s Curries

A Buffet of Reflections