Hall Of Fame

It’s hard to tell that this girl dressed elegantly in her cotton floral salwar-kameez, sans any makeup, talking animatedly about the changing retail space in India, is the star daughter of Kishore Biyani. Avni Biyani admits she likes Indian wear as it is comfortable for work, but also because it is so hot in summer that she could never get herself to wear blazers, even though that’s the norm in the corporate world. “And jeans weren’t allowed, so I was left with Indian clothes, which I have grown to love,” she laughs.

This pint-sized wonder went to New York University and studied sociology and politics before she took the plunge into the retail business. “The idea was to explore myriad societies and ethnic behaviours,” she tells us. “My sister and I grew up seeing our father working on shop floors, layering the stuff on shelves himself sometimes, telling us what will go where depending on eye-level, so that the customer’s contact is with what he aspires to buy.” At 24, when most of the girls she knows would be heading to St. Tropez for a holiday or flipping over the latest Gucci launch, Biyani prefers to understand the nuances of the business. “I can’t change the fact that I was born in a certain family, but I don’t look at myself as so-and-so’s daughter,” she admits. Growing up with an accomplished and in-the-news father can be both challenging and intimidating for a young girl. Maybe that’s where she gets her innate strength and determination from. “Though being a Biyani comes with a lot of responsibility, it has never bogged me down,” she says. “We learn something new from our father every day, but he told me to take each day as it comes, go with the flow, be humble and rooted. He gives me advice from time to time and also the space to make my own mistakes.”

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GIVING SHAPE TO HER DREAMS It was this spirit that urged her to launch Foodhall, despite a million hurdles. She joined her father’s company three years ago after thinking through the concept. “I wanted to give the well-travelled customer a chance to savour the best of everything—from vegetables, cold cuts, groceries, spices, tea and meats, to kitchen appliances—under one roof.”

The idea was to make it experiential with live demos so that you can taste what you are buying. She admits with a twinkle in her eye that she just found a vendor for pressed cold juices. These small victories keep her motivated to do better. “I have a team whose job is just to get a hold of such interesting people,” she says. “We wanted to give our buyers a reason to come back to us—almost 70 per cent of what you see here is imported, with anti-pasti, Mexican and mezze platters, close to 70 different types of cheese and more,” she chuckles. Keeping in mind that the market is evolving, Foodhall is a work-in-progress. She edits what she doesn’t like and adds what she feels will work. “I do feel young people today are experimentative and influence family food choices, and even though our concept is targeted towards the upwardly mobile, youngsters are the torchbearers of the future.”

DISHING UP DELIGHTS This Michelin-star-aspiring chef is busy conjuring up delicacies in the kitchen, in her free time. “I can cook almost everything.” But she can’t bake, and her dessert prowess is limited to just four sweets, and a decent phirni.

Keen on not being seen as a diva spotted in designer wear in luxury magazines, Biyani is passionate about travelling and absorbing the world’s cultures. The travel bug is an inheritance from her father who likes to take off whenever he can. “Work is just one part of my life—I learnt to make that distinction early on,” she says. “It has been my passion to travel and I got to learn a lot about food during a semester in the UK and travelled to Europe to understand European cuisine and culture.”

She often seeks the help of her older sister Ashni, who is at the helm of affairs at the Future Group and confesses there is absolutely no sibling rivalry between the two. “She is the director of Future Ideas, and is a textile designer from Parsons School of Design. And I always wanted to enter the food business as that was my calling,” she explains.

Biyani is not one to shy away from challenges even though getting things done in India, she admits, is an obstacle course. It was getting the right partnerships and finding trained people for Foodhall that sapped most of her energy. “Things here don’t move, but despite that we have to move ahead, and that can be daunting. But I am not afraid to fail. In fact, I have learnt a lot from my errors and that’s how we were raised—fearless and ready to take on something new. My most glaring weakness is that I can get a bit restless and anger comes quite quickly to me, but I am working on it,” she concludes, smiling brightly.

“I wanted to give the well-travelled customer a chance to savour the best of everything— from vegetables, cold cuts, groceries, spices, tea and meats, to kitchen appliances— under one roof.”