To say Indian food in Berlin is big would be an understatement. It’s fashionable, a bit of an obsession, the next big wave after Italian and then Chinese.
Six million eat at the 250-odd Indian restaurants every month. Up until three years ago, about three Indian restaurants were opening in Berlin every month. And two Thane boys, and the coming down of the wall, had something to do with it.
That’s not to say Berlin and bhaturas is a new love affair. Berliners popped their first ‘football bread’ 40 years ago. At least the West Berliners did.
The East, as we know, was another story; till the wall fell. Now, it’s the new turf. While students and artists moved to the eastern neighbourhoods as squatters or seekers of low rents, tourists gravitated around history’s detritus. The new wave of Indian takeaways came up to service the students.
The game-changers, in more ways than one, 15 years ago were Bitu and Bunty Bans who moved to Berlin from Bombay more than two decades ago. Their brand ambassador is their Thane-based father, whose picture you’d find on a passing-by delivery truck or the matchbox.
The Indian food scene exploded. Bollywood’s popularity helped. The brothers positioned themselves strategically in the vibrant touristy district of Kreuzberg with their first restaurant Amrit, opposite the small Indian eatery that Bunty initially worked in. But the facelift came with Bitu who was on his way from the US.
By bringing in stone Buddhas and Ganeshas — that you’d find in all their five properties in prime high tourist frequency area serving close to 500 covers each — from Bali he aligned the image of the Indian experience with that of Bollywood: Rich, colourful and opulent, in sharp contrast to the dressed down Indian outlets that still dot parts of Berlin.
“They spawned a hundred like them,” says Mubarak Ahmad, owner of Chaudhry Food Traders, who supplies ingredients to 90% Indian kitchens in Berlin. “If you had to survive, you had to be like them,” he says. You’ll find one Ganesha and one Buddha in every Indian restaurant. Even in a Bangladeshi one run by a fairly conservative Bangladeshi Muslim.
The menu of a Sri Lankan speciality restaurant lists 30% Indian dishes. “You cannot not offer Indian food,” says Chandra Kumari Suryakanthi, owner of Surya Kanthi restaurant.
Inspired by Amrit and its sister brand Mirchi’s success stories, many cooks from Indian kitchens saved up enough to buy out ailing Chinese restaurants and started places of their own. Amrit’s competitors are people who trained in their kitchens. “If people are copying me, they are only promoting my brand,” says Bitu. “I choose my cooks carefully. I rent an apartment in Delhi for a few weeks where I call cooks to cook for me traditional and contemporary stuff.”
Bitu was the official caterer for Shah Rukh Khan while he was in Berlin for the premiere of My Name is Khan. He is the only one who is bullish about growth of Indian cuisine any further.
“Rubbish,” he says, “there’s nothing creativity can’t solve.” He has, after all, shaken up things once before.
