Updated: December 4, 2020 6:52:54 am
The owner of MDH, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, passed away at the age of 97 due to sudden cardiac arrest. He has been in treatment for the past three weeks at a Delhi hospital. (Photo: PTI / Designed by Gargi Singh)
In 1947, a young man emigrated from Sialkot of Pakistan to Delhi, with 1,500 rupees in his pocket, scars from partition and a recipe for a special spice that his family sold. To earn a living in this new town, the young man operated a tonga in Karol Bagh for “do aana” per trip before establishing a humble 14 x 9 foot spice shop in the area in 1947, one that would grow to become MDH Spices, a business empire that posted revenue of Rs 1,062 crore in 2018.
On Thursday morning, MDH Spices founder Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, the great old man of spices, suffered cardiac arrest and died in a Delhi hospital at the age of 98. In addition to being one of the most successful CEOs in India, Gulati was also a pop culture icon, rarely seen without his red turban, twisted mustache, and a pearl necklace around his neck. The brand’s catchy jingle “Asli masale sach-sach, MDH-MDH ”for its ads is also a cultural phenomenon, with the masala packaged in colorful packages bearing Gulati’s photo finding a home in kitchens across the country.
In 1984, when MDH launched its first television commercial, with actors Shafi Inamdar and Neena Gupta, Gulati appeared as a guest at a wedding. Later, she would make a cameo appearance in all of the brand’s ads, with her signature style.
In 2017, in an interview with author Mallika Ahluwalia, who described him for her book Divided by Partition, United by Resilience, Gulati spoke at length about a carefree childhood in Sialkot, with her two brothers, five sisters and seven cousins under her belt. address. the ceiling; Leave the school; and his father and uncle’s joint spice business called “Mahashian di Hatti”.
On August 20, 1947, as the violence spread after the Partition, the family moved to a refugee camp, before leaving for Amritsar in India on September 7. On September 28, Gulati was in Delhi.
Ahluwalia, co-founder of the first Partition museum, which opened in Amritsar in 2017, wrote about Gulati telling her that she had hit the jackpot with an ad in the Hindi newspaper Pratap that read: ‘Mahashian di Hatti from Sialkot Deggi Mirch Waale’. . According to him, it attracted buyers from as far away as Cuttack in Odisha.
Ahluwalia told The Indian Express: “I met him at his office in 2017 in Delhi’s Kirti Nagar, he was in his 90s and still working every day. For me, he was an incarnation of the post-Partition refugee, who had great courage and determination to achieve it. I also used to see him in Nehru Park every night. It was so humble. “
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisiodia were among those who tweeted their condolences on Gulati’s death. Kejriwal said that Gulati was a “very inspiring personality who dedicated his life to society.”
He filmed his final brand ad last year with director Prabhakar Shukla. “Even at 97, he flew to Mumbai. He was so invested in the process, eager to know everything we had planned. There is only one brand that remembers MDH and that is Mahashayji, ”said Shukla, who also directed a film for the company’s centennial celebrations in 2019 and recalls how involved Gulati was at every stage of making his masalas.
Karthik Srinivasan, brand strategy and communications consultant, noted that while many entrepreneurs have been brand ambassadors for their own products or services, “Gulati was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to have his own face on the products he sold. . It becomes quite difficult to miss him, to ignore him. “
The organized retail spice market in India is highly fragmented into regions with nearly a dozen brands, including Everest, MDH, Catch, Tata Sampann, Aashirvaad, Ramdev, Patanjali, Badshah, Goldie Masala, ITC’s MTR Foods, and others. Everest leads the entire Indian spice market, with MDH closely following. ITC’s Aashirvaad range of spices is the market leader in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and MTR Foods in other southern states. ITC recently acquired Sunrise Foods, which is a leader in West Bengal and the eastern states.
Often asked why his company didn’t include popular actors in its ads, Gulati said he didn’t want to capitalize on the success of superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. Since he was the person behind the success of MDH, he should be the one promoting it, he said.
“Dharampal Gulatiji was the definitive grandfather of the brand’s mascot movement. He brought his personality and his reliability to the MDH brand. He will be missed. My advice to MDH masalas would be to use Mahashayji’s personality in an animated way. That’s the ultimate transition from brand personality to brand icon, ”said brand consultant Harish Bijoor.
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