Tatyasaheb: The Story of a Bombay Entrepreneur

THE TRUE STORY OF HOW AN ORDINARY INDIVIDUAL WORKED HIS WAY UP TO BECOME A REMARKABLE BUSINESS SUCCESS.

Vaman Shridhar Apte arrived in Bombay at the end of the nineteenth century, and began his career as an assistant to a textile merchant in Mulji Jetha Market. Within a few decades, he had risen to become one of the wealthiest men in the city, residing in a sea-facing mansion on a sprawling estate on the posh Peddar Road. Known to all as Tatyasaheb, Apte hailed from an orthodox Kokanastha Brahmin family-an unlikely background for someone who would find such remarkable success in the world of business.

Tatyasaheb: The Story of a Bombay Entrepreneur presents the life and times of Tatyasaheb (1875-1952). It charts his life from his origins in Girgaon, where he lived in the cramped quarters of Khatryachi Chawl, to his rising fortunes in the Gujarati bastion of MJ Market as the sole selling agent for Kohinoor Mills textiles. It traces his tumultuous relationship with Dadasaheb Phalke during his unexpected career as a silent film producer, when he produced over a hundred feature films, and his further success as a leading industrialist with the founding of the Phaltan Sugar Works.

Through it all, Tatyasaheb’s immense grit, determination and his knack for being part of three key sunrise industries of the Bombay Presidency-textile, film and sugar-are a testament to his keen business sense and stature as one of the business pioneers of Bombay.

This book is also the story of Tatyasaheb’s family-a journey through the social customs and daily rituals of a way of life that has passed into history. No less is it the story of how Bombay became a wealth-generating dynamo by nurturing and, in turn, being enriched by the risk-takers and entrepreneurs who made the city into the business hub of today.