Hakuna Matata

How three-year-old craft beer brand Simba plans to take on the giants

- Rajiv Singh

Mufasa always had dollops of wisdom for Simba. Prabhtej Singh Bhatia, who first saw Disney’s animated film The Lion King in 2000, can still vividly recall most of the endearing conversation between the father and the son.

Closest to Bhatia’s heart, however, is what the ageing king tells his cub: Time as ruler, he says, rises and falls like the sun. “One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king.”

The lines left an indelible imprint on 10-year-old Bhatia, who was born into a family that has retailed and distributed liquor since Independence. 1947 was also the year his grandparents migrated from Pakistan to Dongargarh in the Rajnandgaon district of Madhya Pradesh; his grandfather used to cycle over 60 km every day to sell liquor. By the 1980s, the Bhatias had become the biggest liquor retailer in the state.

Cut to 2009. The youngest Bhatia enrolled in Exeter College in the UK to pursue a degree in business economics. His father Baldeo Singh Bhatia dished out an emotional, yet prophetic, sermon at the airport. The day you are back, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you, he told his son, evoking memories of The Lion King. He was alluding to the plans of diversifying from liquor retail to contract manufacturing by setting up a worldclass brewery, a first in Chhattisgarh.