ICYMI: Cannabis, with its many, many uses, has been anointed the saviour crop of our generation. Bombay Hemp Company is here to grow an industry – and weed out the myths from fact
Bombay Hemp Company might be barely seven years old, but Head of Business Development & Media Yash Kotak has heard every joke under the sun about hemp. “If I wash this shirt, will I get high?” he rolls his eyes, counting off the most frequently volleyed punchlines. “If I wash these pants, will they dissolve?” (Because bhaang does.) Perhaps most outrageous, if marginally more intelligent: “If my house catches re, will I get stoned?”
“Initially, people even thought we were selling ham, not hemp,” laughs Chirag Tekchandaney, Head of Marketing & Human Resources. “Most of these come up at educative sessions and talks we hold in colleges about the sustainability aspect of hemp. And when these young buds come up and ask these questions, they act as real icebreakers for us.”
“Wait, did you actually call them ‘young buds’?” quips Sanvar Oberoi, Director of Finance & Digital Technology. We’re sitting in Boheco’s tiny loft of an of Office hiding in a bylane of Mumbai’s money-minded Lower Parel neighbourhood, crammed between a sporting goods retail shop and an automobile workshop. When you spot a giant cannabis leaf drawn on the wall along a staircase, you’ve found the HQ. But considering the immense growth that the company has seen in the past few years, it might be time to move.
Boheco was launched in 2013 by seven guys studying at Mumbai’s HR College, who’d come together to explore how they could “use social entrepreneurship to power rural India.” Its first project focused on developing solar lanterns and lamps made by the disabled, and creating a channel to supply them to parts of India with little or no access to electricity.
This story is from the August 2019 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 2019 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Finally, Women Are Breaking Up One of Luxury's Stuffiest Boys' Clubs
Dimepiece founder Brynn Wallner hosts a round table of leaders in the watch world to unpack the ascendant power of the female collector.
Can The Saudis Buy Soccerr?
Saudi Arabia is spending an unfathomable fortune to lure the biggest stars of global football (Ronaldo! Benzema! Neymar!) to its upstart league. So GQ ventured to the kingdom to discover what the gambit represents. Is this the future of the world's most popular sport? The vanguard of sportswashing? Or something way bigger?
CRACKING THE PERO CODE
Delhi-based label Péro is available in over 350 stores across the world. Shweta Shiware meets the reclusive founder and creative mastermind Aneeth Arora, arguably the Indian fashion industry's best storyteller.
Captain Mbappé
We met him as a teenage prodigy. Now, with his PSG teammates Messi and Neymar gone, and a new job as French national team captain, Kylian Mbappé is reckoning with the responsibilities and privileges that come with being the man.
The Full Ricky
Twenty-five years after becoming one of the most staggeringly famous men on the planet, a wiser, more assured Ricky Martin is taking another run at being a star. While also being himself, this time.
THE BOND
What does it mean to be a parent in this day and age? In GQ's annual series dedicated to fatherhood, we take a peek at the intimate relationships that some of the coolest dads share with their kids.
THE RATIONAL ACTOR
With a stream of critical and commercial successes under his belt, Vicky Kaushal is buoyant about what lies ahead in terms of work. Yet it is in his personal life that he has experienced the most transformation.
Standing TALL
Comedian and actor Vir Das speaks to GQ about winning an International Emmy for his Netflix special, codirecting his first movie, and the future of stand-up comedy in India.
Das Holistic
New York's desi rap star Heems's new album re-imagines the diasporic experience not as a site of endless ambivalence, but a place to be whole.
The Return of the Opulent '80s
The all-gold Piaget Polo, Hublot Classic Original, and Rolex GMT were kings during the '80s. Now they're coming back for their crown.