SAMIR & JAYATI MODI

THE COMPANIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER IS PALPABLE, AS THEY SHARE HOW THEY EACH EMBARKED ON A JOURNEY AWAY FROM THEIR FAMILY ENTERPRISE AND WHAT KEEPS THEM GOING

- ANSHU KHANNA

Both agree that they have tough shoes to fill in. Both achieve beyond life’s brief, and both veer towards glitz and glamour with their own vision and agenda. He’s a maverick maven, and she, an expressive explorer, open to new bastions of life.

Industrialist Samir Modi and actor Jayati Modi, petite and pretty, are free-thinking individuals who know not of any boundaries or briefs. As the father-daughter duo strike a perfect pose together at their art nouveau-to-modern home in New Delhi, they emanate a camaraderie only best-pal parents can have with their kids.

Scions of the Modi clan, one of the leading industrialist families of India, Samir and Jayati both grew up seeing their patriarchs add a string of innovative businesses to their empire. KK Modi, listed in 2012 as the 89th richest man in the world by Forbes, ran businesses ranging from cigarettes to healthcare pesticides. His wife Bina Modi, possibly the most stylish dowager, founded Delhi restaurant Ego Thai, ran Dessange, a salon, and also gave an incredible lease of life to the craft of Parsi gara and chikankari with her heritage-based couture brand.

Each one of these businesses were his to inherit, but Samir, instead, preferred to find his own meraki, his Zen for innovation, and the freedom to create something he could call his own. He launched three splendid businesses that were path-breakers and a tad bit ahead of their time: Modicare, a direct-to-consumer retail story that today stands tall with 2 million beneficiaries; Colorbar, a cosmetics enterprise where innovation and quality meet affordability; and 24/7, a trendy department store that’s proved to be a messiah for those who decide to shop for meals in the wee hours of the night.