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India's date with
Hollywood
By Siddharth
Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Sylvester Stallone,
Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, possibly with
Cameron Diaz, Demi Moore and Arnold Schwarzenegger
are headed for India. Even Britney Spears is
rumored to be on the way. The cream of the
American entertainment business is scheduled to
fly down on the occasion of the launch of Planet
Hollywood in India. The restaurant, most famous
for providing dine-in experience along with some
of Hollywood's biggest stars, has sought out India
as a destination for diners and food lovers and
will be investing close to US$15 million to set up
five restaurants in the country by 2010.
Planet Hollywood's foray into India comes in the wake
of America's $288 billion Wal-Mart, the world's largest
retailer, making a pitch for India's largely untapped
retail market. Food, jewelry and textiles
form the bulk of sales in this segment, with
a McKinsey report predicting that opening up
foreign direct investment in this sector will help
retail businesses to grow from the present $180
billion to $460 billion to $470 billion by
2010. Foreign retail businesses now have to work
through an Indian franchisee, but the Indian
government is seriously considering opening up the
sector. Foreign players have already been allowed
into real estate.
The international
players currently in India include McDonald's,
Pizza Hut, Domino's, Levi's, Lee, Nike, Adidas,
TGIF, Benetton, Swarovski, Sony, Sharp, Kodak, and
the Medicine Shoppe. Planet Hollywood
founder-chairman Robert Earl said there is huge
potential in the Indian market for his brand. "Our
presence will bring the excitement of Hollywood
and combine it with the power of Bollywood in a
very special way," he said in a statement.
Worldwide, there are 28 Planet Hollywood
restaurants spread across United States, Paris,
London, Dubai, Hong Kong and Beijing. The
corporate locations are based in high-volume
tourist areas such as Orlando, New York and Las
Vegas. Planet Hollywood was started by Hollywood
superstars Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis and
Moore, and has become a cauldron for celebrities
and their watchers. Its restaurants typically
serve American-style sandwiches and appetizers,
and carry a wide range of themed merchandise. Earl
is involved in an investment group that recently
purchased the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las
Vegas. The hotel is being renovated with plans to
re-brand the completed 2,500-room property in 2006
as the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.
For its entry into the Indian market,
Planet Hollywood has signed a franchisee agreement
with the US-based Arch Millennium Corp, promoted
by Indian-origin businessmen that run several
other hotel and restaurant chains. The plans are
to open one restaurant each in Mumbai, Delhi,
Bangalore, Goa and Hyderabad. "We will be bringing
in big stars like Willis and Stallone to India as
part of our promotional activities, while also
trying to get others like Paris Hilton and Justin
Timberlake," said Arch Millennium president and
chief executive officer Siddharth Mobar.
The world has already acquired a taste for
Indian curry and tandoori chicken. With Planet
Hollywood, Indians will be able to test their
palates with the likes of "Chicken Crunch", a Demi
Moore recipe, and "Banana Strudel", from
Schwarzenegger's mother's kitchen. Bollywood stars
will be roped in to provide the right spice and
local flavor. The cuisine will be classically
Californian with a variety of pastas, exotic
salads, burgers, pizzas and a variety of
vegetarian offerings, smoked and grilled meats and
fish. Plus the opportunity to wine and dine with
the stars themselves, with Willis and Stallone
mixing the cocktails and tossing the salad during
the opening.
"Our plan is to give the
Indian audience, who already love Hollywood, the
best," said Mobar. "We have the best in terms of
movie history and memorabilia, we give the very
best of dining and movies experience. The props
that we would bring to the restaurants in India
would be the best. And we would change them every
year so that we are completely up-to-date with
what is happening in the entertainment world."
As per the standards followed by the
chain, each Planet Hollywood restaurant will
display memorabilia from old classics as well as
new movies. The interior decor will reflect
various film genres, including action, horror and
sci-fi, and the audio-visual system will play the
latest movie trailers, clips, music videos and
celebrity visits. A guest in a Planet Hollywood
India restaurant will be able to watch the
proceedings at restaurant locations such as New
York, Las Vegas, Orlando, London and Paris.
The
first restaurant is likely to begin serving next year
in Mumbai, with an initial investment of $2.5
million to $3 million. The potential
customer base is large. A new survey by a
hospitality industry platform on restaurants in
the main cities of India shows that 260,000 people
eat out more than once a week in Kolkata, followed
by 175,000 in Bangalore. Then there are Mumbai,
Chennai and New Delhi. Average spending on an
outdoor meal is $5, which is reasonable by Indian
standards.
Planet Hollywood could do well
to learn from McDonald's, which continues to
expand in the country with an aim to reach 100
restaurants by the end of 2006. Apart from cheap
pricing, the food chain has tailored its menu to
the Indian market, creating dishes such as the
Paneer Salsa Wrap, McCurry Pan, McAloo Tikki and
innovating with mutton in a country where most do
not eat beef.
According to a McKinsey
report, the share of an Indian household's
spending on food is one of the highest in the
world at over 50% of income. Food sales have grown
to $20 billion from $7 billion in 1996. The
organized retail food and grocery sector
constitutes the largest opportunity for growth and
accounts for 2% of total sales at present.
According to a study on the food and grocery
retail market by KSA Technopak, the food and
grocery sector now accounts for 14% of total
organized (chain) retail, after clothing and
textiles (at 36%) and watches and jewelry (at
17%). Experts say that food retailing will soon
overtake both the categories since food accounts
for the bulk of a typical household's income.
So 2004-05 may well mark the coming of age
of food retailing in India. All the big corporate
houses, including Tatas, Reliance, ITC Group, Indo
Rama, RK Hospitality, Big Bazaar and RPG group's
Food World besides multinationals such as
Shoprite, Metro AG and Trent are expanding
operations. In recent years, as a consequence of
rising incomes in India, there has been a huge
growth of shopping malls and large-sized
department stores, food courts and restaurants.
While a third of India's 1 billion people earn
less than a dollar a day, the retail giants are
targeting the 300-million "middle class"
population with rapidly growing salaries and
global skills.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based writer.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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