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Every Indian’s mouth gets watery by hearing ‘Pani Puri’, one of the most popular street food in the country. We are consuming the food item for so many years but never have heard of a single brand name for it.
An MBA Grad, Prashant Kulkarni who worked at Infosys was a die-hard fan of Pani Puri and used to eat it at roadside stalls when one day fell prey to food-poisoning, after which Prashant could not eat his favourite street food for four long months, which is very long for a pani puri lover.
The incident led Prashant to research about various healthy offerings for pani puri in the country and he found that there was no brand associated with the famous food item. He then launched India’s first pani puri brand, ‘Gapagap’.
Prashant finally realised that typical corporate jobs are not his cup of tea and began to start his own venture in October 2011. Today, along with his team members, Aarti Sirsat and Pallavi Kulkarni, he manages the Gapagap brand and other products like 80 types of bhel, 27 types of chaats, pohas, etc. under his venture ‘Chatar Patar’.
Chatar Patar sells 112 different flavours of Pani Puri. Some of the other famous items from his menu include Maggi Gapagap: a combination of various tastes with the regular Maggi, Masala Fries: Indian street version of French fries, Chaatizza: Chaat+Pizza, Idli fries, idli chaat and khakhra chat.
Since its launch, Chatar Patar is growing rapidly. It has now tied up with Big Bazaar shops across states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan and has franchisees across these regions. Its latest outlet was opened in Ahmedabad.
But all this was not as easy as it sounds. Any startup is not easy to take forward to the success. Prashant is still trying to tackle problems related to logistics and supply chain that can smoothen transfers of goods like panipuri masala, the ingredients of bhel, from Indore to various cities, as the startup firm is an Indore-based.
Talking about his ambition, Prashant says, “We are a bunch of dreamers, we want to make Chatar Patar an international brand. After penetrating the Indian market, we would love to go abroad.” He has already received some offers from London and Australia but has put them on hold as he wanted to strengthen his roots in India first.
Prashant has a family background of businessmen but he himself had never really thought of entering the field. His family is in the business of manufacturing tubes for automobiles. When he came up with the idea of starting Chatar Patar, everybody in his family thought he is out of his mind, but he still decided to start his venture, overcoming all the hurdles.
So, next time when you want to have Pani Puri, without falling sick, do visit a Chatar Patar outlet near you.
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