Former senior journalist-turned-communicator Mahul Brahma launched his debut book “Decoding Luxe”, to an audience-packed Starmark bookstore at the Quest Mall, on August 17, 2017.
The compere for the evening, Saira Shah Halim ensured that the gathering was held engrossed and the flow of events proceeded well. The panellist included Jawhar Sircar, former CEO, Prasar Bharati, Jonathan Ward, from the US Consulate, Vinaya Varma, CEO, mjunction, Arnab Chakrabortty, India Director, United Nation’s Empretec Program and Kounteya Sinha, photographer and journalist. The event witnessed a free-flowing and engaging discussion with the panellists talking about the book and luxury from their perspectives with numerous anecdotes.
Decoding Luxe narrates the story of the origin of luxury in India. In the 1920s, 20% of Rolls Royce’s global sales were from India. In 1926, the Maharaja of Patiala commissioned Cartier, its largest till date, to remodel his crown jewels, which included the 234.69 carat De Beers diamond. The result was a breath-taking Patiala necklace weighing 962.25 carats with 2,930 diamonds. Not to mention that a certain Nizam had procured 50 Harley Davidsons for his postmen to deliver his messages.
The book is a myth-buster of luxury, questioning the age-old notions that still are very dominant but not relevant any more. One myth-buster is how the middle class is driving the luxury market and not the Richie-rich. All international brands thrive on volume game and that only comes from the Great Indian Middle Class. The book also states that e-commerce has done more harm than good in luxury, boosting sale of luxury fakes or counterfeit and thus hitting the genuine luxury brands. Growing at a compounded annual growth rate of almost 40-45 per cent, the counterfeit luxury products market in India is likely to more than double to Rs. 5,600 crore from the current level of about Rs. 2,500 crore.
The book has received praise from industry leaders like Ratan Tata, D. Shivakumar, Sanjiv Goenka, Mr Harshavardhan Neotia and Mr Hemant Kanoria among others.