Shilpa Shetty’s premium restaurant chain, Bastian, has long been one of Mumbai’s most talked-about dining brands. The business grabbed widespread attention last year after author Shobhaa De claimed that one of its Mumbai outlets earned between Rs 2 crore and Rs 3 crore in a single night. While Shilpa later rejected those figures, her husband and businessman Raj Kundra has now opened up about the company’s growth, revealing that despite its success, neither of them takes money out of the business for personal use.During a conversation with Jai Madaan, Raj spoke about the role Vastu plays in their business decisions, explaining that every Bastian property undergoes a thorough evaluation before launching. “We do. We have a fixed Vastu expert. We have a priest named Jaspreet, who checks each and every property before we open it.” Madaan then recalled visiting Bastian’s Dadar outlet when it had just opened and shared that she immediately sensed the brand would become a major success.“When I first went to Bastian in Dadar, I looked at the way the ‘B’ of Bastian began, and I told my daughter this was going to become a big brand. I also told them they would eventually sell their stake after giving it a huge valuation. I knew they wouldn’t stay with it forever.” Raj admitted he was surprised by her prediction. “That’s amazing. It is scary.” Madaan went on to reveal another forecast she had made about the business model, saying the couple would continue reinvesting their earnings instead of taking profits for themselves.“I also said that they would make a lot of money but wouldn’t save any of it. They would keep taking money from one place and investing it somewhere else. They wouldn’t take a single penny home. Neither of them would draw a salary or take dividends. Everything would go back into the business.” Responding to her remarks, Raj confirmed that the business had largely followed that path.“Wow, not bad. The growth has been tremendous. Seriously, without investing a single penny after the first outlet, it became so successful that we kept opening one after another. Today, there are about nine Bastians across the country. It all started with the first one.” Madaan also predicted that Bastian would eventually establish a presence in Tier-2 cities as the brand continued to expand.The restaurant chain had earlier dominated headlines after Shobhaa De spoke about what she described as its staggering revenues during an appearance on Mojo Story. “The kind of money in Mumbai is astonishing. One single restaurant has a turnover of Rs 2–3 crore a night. On a slow night, it’s Rs 2 crore, and on weekends it is Rs 3 crore. I walked into that restaurant myself because when I first heard these numbers, I thought they couldn’t be true.”She later identified the restaurant as Bastian. “It’s Bastian. The new Bastian. It’s spread over 21,000 square feet. It doesn’t even feel real. You walk in and wonder where you are. You have a 360-degree view of the city. People arrive in Lamborghinis and Aston Martins. You name it.”Shilpa Shetty, however, dismissed the viral claims when she appeared on Curly Tales, saying the reported figures were far from reality. “I hope that was true. I’m sure one day it will be true, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.” Shilpa entered the hospitality business in 2019.
