MILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Charan Gill has given up running Slumdog, his high-profile comeback Glasgow curry venture, and has struck a management agreement that includes an "option to buy" with rival group Kama Sutra, The Herald has learned.
Kama Sutra, the fast-growing restaurant chain based across the road from Slumdog on Sauchiehell Street and run by Scottish Ethnic Minority Achievements Businesswoman of the Year Asha Bains, has taken over Mr Gill’s former pet project and is currently negotiating the purchase of the Slumdog lease as well as the brand.
Asked how much she expected to pay for the restaurant, Ms Bains said: “Obviously, Charan wants to make money and get the highest price possible, like anyone else in business, and we want to buy for the lowest price possible – so we’re still in negotiations.
“At the moment, a management agreement is in place between Charan and Kama Sutra Restaurants. Everything else is under negotiation – but it’s very early days.
“We also have an option to buy within a year – and we probably will.”
Mr Gill, who built the Ashoka chain of Indian restaurants, exited the Glasgow curry scene when he sold the chain’s parent Harlequin Group to Ms Bains’ brother-in law, Sanjay Majhu, for £8 million in 2006 – but three years later he opened Slumdog in a fanfare of publicity celebrating his return to the city.
In between, Mr Gill acquired Musselburgh’s Quayside Restaurant and Leisure Centre for around £1.4m and transformed it into a hugely successful project that includes Chubara Indian eatery.
However, just before Slumdog’s opening, Harlequin-owner Mr Majhu declared he was very surprised” that Mr Gill, who had once been his employer and business mentor, had chosen to re-enter the Glasgow curry scene.
The concept of Slumdog came to Mr Gill when he was asked to do a television programme on what people were eating in the back streets of India, which was broadcast ahead of the small-screen premiere of director Danny Boyle’s smash-hit film Slumdog Millionaire. Mr Gill, who has become one of Scotland’s most celebrated businessmen, also registered the “Slumdog” name as a trademark and had plans to roll out the concept in bars and cafes, as well as through pre-packed food, spices and even beer.
Not long after its opening, the Punjab-born Scottish entrepreneur added stand-up comedy to Slumdog’s menu, and often performed himself.
The irony that Slumdog is now being controlled by Ms Bains and the former Harlequin operations manager Rajesh Saraf, whom Mr Gill had brought from India to run Harlequin, is not likely to be lost on Sanjay Majhu, whose brother Sandy, a former director of Harlequin, is the husband of Ms Bains.
Sanjay Majhu, who also owns the Apple Pharmacy chain and has had a 30-year friendship with Mr Gill, has since grown Harlequin into Europe’s largest curry empire.
Mr Gill yesterday told The Herald: “Yes, we have a management agreement with Kama Sutra, but no deal on anything else has been agreed.”
Asked why he had struck the management agreement, he said: “It makes sense for them to run it from across the road.
“They have economies of scale and I’m spending more and more time at Musselburgh, which is growing.
“As far as anything else goes at Slumdog, I’m happy to look at any deal and think about it. But the Slumdog name is certainly not dead. At the moment, they can’t change it without my permission.”
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