Meet Shiladitya Chaudhury, the man who dons many hats & excels in all of them

From musician to public relations to restaurant business to wildlife photography- whenever he opted for greener pastures, he always made the transition look so easy. His passion for music, food, wildlife turned him into a multi-faceted entrepreneur. Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Shiladitya Chaudhury, Founder-Director, Platter Hospitality Pvt Ltd, narrates his entrepreneurial journey, the success story of Oudh 1590 and the way forward

From musician/music director, PR man to restaurateur - how did the entrepreneurial journey begin?

When I was in my high school, I started playing the drums and we formed a band called Rhythmic Emotions. We used to play covers, mostly Simon and Garfunkel, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Guns and Roses, we used do shows on Christmas Eve or 31st nights in hotels and clubs. That’s how my musical career started with composing music. I did a lot of albums during early 90s with Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Amit Kumar and many other celebrities. I sang in a lot of albums, composed music for multiple Bengali movies as well, and never thought that I’ll do a job. My passion drove me to be a music director or a composer. I was quite popular by the name of Munna-Raj, though it is now Shiladitya Raj. However I did my graduation from Kolkata and did MBA as well. Hailing from a middle-class family; my father was the general manager in a Japanese trading company. So, my family propelled me to do a job. That time Daewoo Motors had just come to India for the launch of CLO and Martin cars and Seshin which is a trading company was closely working with Daewoo Motors and I was lucky enough to get a junior manager job with Seshin and I started working in Delhi. In short span of time I got very close to the management and again I was lucky that I became the country chief of Seshin Corporation when I was only 23 years old. That was, I feel, a deep amount of blessing for me. Those were the golden days of my working for some other company. This is how my five years gone by. Music took a backseat as I was working full-time. Daewoo had to stop all their operations in India following their bankruptcy globally.

I got offer in Hyundai Motors as executive assistant to the chairman. Hyundai, back then, just came to India for the launch of Santro Cars. But I denied the offer because at that time I wanted to come back to Kolkata and also I didn’t want to work for auto mobile companies anymore. I came back to Kolkata and was the first one to open the first PR agency in Kolkata called Situations PR. We pitched for the West Bengal government to publicize the state initiatives nationally in other parts of the country, that’s how my career took a leap. The concept of government needing PR for amplifying its initiatives was absolutely unexplored. That time, ‘Brand Buddha’ was a popular exercise, Ratan Tata had just signed an MoU for setting up the Nano Plant in Singur so government was always in News. We got a lot of clients. The then Chairman of WBIDC, Somnath Chatterjee, who later became the Lok Sabha Speaker, was a father figure to me and also adored me a lot. He used to encourage me that I should do something on my own, he encouraged me doing my own business. Though he wanted to take me to Delhi as his OSD, I humbly refused because I was just back from Delhi after a hiatus of five years. After that I started my own PR agency called Sagittarius. We pitched for WBIDC and we got the account, with time we became the largest PR agency of the east. We have all the major accounts in Kolkata. Even today Sagittarius takes pride to be the largest communications agency of the East, I am very lucky to get so many great mentors in my life. I met Ram Ray in due course of time, learnt so much about communication from him. His agency Response India used to handle the advertising and I used to handle the PR for most of the Clients that Sagittarius served over the period of years. My first mentor was Masuda and then came Somnath Chatterjee and of course there was Ram Ray who enlightened me.

Why food business? Any particular trigger?

People who know me will know that deep down I am a foodie; everyone in my family is fascinated with food and loved cooking. As a Child, I can recall waking up with a smell of Chinese food from a Chinese food joint located right beside our house in Garcha called Kim Wa. Furthermore, my grandmother and mother used to cook really well. I had a desire always in my mind that someday I will open my own restaurant. My younger brother Debadita started his own restaurant called Chowman in the year 2010. So after sometime we both decided to open a restaurant together with a plan to serve Kolkatans a cuisine that was unknown to them. We researched and realised that biryani and kababs are highest selling cuisine in India but so many people in Kolkata were not exposed to the royal taste of Awadhi cuisine. We went to Lucknow and brought the Awadhi cuisine to the gourmands of Kolkata, that’s how Oudh 1590 was born. We opened one outlet in Kolkata and received enormous response. Now we have 10 outlets of Oudh in Kolkata and one flagship outlet in Delhi.

How has been the journey/experience so far? What have been the key lessons?

We were perceived that in Kolkata the Awadhi cuisine only meant to be Chicken Biryani, Mutton Biryani, Mutton Chap, Chicken Chap and few kababs and people used to only eat that. Also, there was no middle segment pertaining to people having the Biryani. There were legendary restaurants near Park Circus and other prominent paces in Kolkata and on the other hand, there were five-star places like Dum Pukht and others. I take pride saying that we researched and we were the first to introduce to Kolkata about Galawati Kebab, Kakori Kebab and Handi biriyani and it was an instant hit, we were unable to provide seats to the people coming for food. Key lessons that I have done for both PR business and FNB business is to go in the details, we should always start from the roots before doing any business and to have deep knowledge in whatever business someone is trying to perceive. There is no short cut to detailing. In PR business we need to read a lot and to know whatever is happening in the surrounding, it required passion as in PR we need to meet a lot of people same goes for the food business, select a right amount of man power, selecting the right vendors, right interiors, right people, a stringent SOP and strategic location. Everything is based on SOP and almost after a decade we are proud to have such a wonderful team in place to execute day to day work.

How many Oudh outlets do you have as of now? What is the number you are looking at over the next 1-2 years?

As of now we have 11 Oudh, 10 in Kolkata and 1 in Delhi. Till 2025 we wish to open 8-9 more Oudh’s outlet across India. Now we are also thinking of opening another outlet in London.

What would you attribute Oudh success story to?

Success story would be key to detailing; Oudh is not just a restaurant it’s a destination to be at. When you will enter the restaurant, you will find a new experience till the time you exit. Starting from the décor, the costumes, the crockery and the cutlery we use, the music we play in the background, the menu we have everything attributes to the success of Oudh.

You have been part of The Chapter 2 journey as well. Could you throw some light on that?

Chapter 2 is very close to my heart. Me and my younger brother Debatiya wanted to pay our tribute to Park street of 40s and 60s which was golden period of Park Street. I am a 73 born; I have seen a little glimpse of Park Street. The live band playing at the side of the streets, Christmas celebration at Park Street and the restaurants we used to go. At late 90s everything started vanishing from Park Street. So Chapter 2 recreates the lost legacy of the Park Street. We were lucky to get a chef whose grandfather was one the chef of Skyroom which is a Park Street phenomenon once that is now extinct. We love it when we get compared with Skyroom, we feel overwhelmed that people can relate Skyroom to Chapter 2.

What about your plans to foray into QSR format? Is it still on?

I don’t have any plans to foray into QSR format right now, though we are in touch with an agency pertaining to opening multiple kiosks at the major airports. We will announce once things materialize.

You have other facets and creative pursuits including wildlife photography. How do you strike a balance?

Wildlife photography is something that I started very early when I was in class 12, I visited Bandhavgarh for the very first time and I fell in love with that place since then every year thrice or four times in a year I visit forests in India and once in a year I visit Africa, it’s a must for me that gives me all the energy to work. I have been to Africa more than a dozen times over the last 20 years.

I love to travel, I have been to 47 countries in the last 25 years, it’s a huge passion for me. It’s just not about travelling places; it’s about learning and exploring a lot of things about cuisine all around the world. Wildlife photography is very close to my heart. I have published 3 books as of now, one was published by ministry of textiles, second book was from Rupa Publication about national parks of Gujrat in that I have documented all the national parks of Gujrat and now I am working on a book titled Tigers of India, which will see the light of the day very soon.

Building brands, doing campaign for others and doing the same things for your own brands- which one is more difficult? Or in what way are they different?

Building brand for others is something we have been doing from many years now; this helped me creating our own brands. Sagittarius as a PR agency absolutely professionally run by CEO where I only strategize. We have stopped working for F&B brands, we mostly work for corporates in Kolkata and there is a separate team which works for lifestyle brands.

Future plans with Oudh and restaurant business?

We have completed 10 years and we have huge plans in place for next five years. We plan to open 20-25 outlets pan India. More strategies will soon get implemented. In the end, two main things that I have learnt from my mentors are to be punctual and the second thing would be to notice everything in details. There is no shortcut to success.