How relevant is royalty in new India? Brut spent a breathtaking day at one of the country's oldest and wealthiest royal properties to find out.
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00:00How does it feel like to be a modern-day king in India?
00:11First and foremost, my question is that do such things exist?
00:24Royal families in India were stripped of their baby purses and privileges in 1971.
00:2950 years down the line, there are still many royal families known in India for their opulent
00:35lifestyles.
00:36I mean, look at their cars, their weddings, their homes, or even their multi-crore legal
00:42battles.
00:43What's even more fascinating is what they say or what they do still make news.
00:48Without titles or any defined power or position, why should it matter what these erstwhile
00:53royals think about news events or ongoing controversies?
00:57And yet, it does.
01:00But why and how are modern-day royals making a living and staying relevant in India today?
01:06Roop spent a day at one of the oldest and wealthiest royal properties in India, the
01:11City Palace of Udaipur.
01:42This palace is many centuries old, once the bastion of the great warrior king Maharaja
01:48Pratap.
01:49A part of the palace is open to the public for a glimpse into the history of the Mewar
01:54dynasty.
01:55Another part is still inhabited by the royal family.
01:58And this part of the palace is called the Shivnivas, now a luxury hotel property.
02:03It is here that in 1961, the monarchs of Britain, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, spent two
02:09days.
02:10They were visiting the then king of Udaipur.
02:13You might have also seen the palace in the 1983 James Bond movie.
02:40We were accompanied by Laksharaj Singh.
02:49His website says he is the scion of 1500-year-old house of Mewar.
02:54Today, a room at the property starts from 9,000 rupees and goes up to 45,000 rupees
03:08per night.
03:09The Mewar clan was one of the pioneers in converting their palaces into heritage properties.
03:15The heritage industry, the heritage hotels are coming back.
03:19There are people who are a lot more passionate about it.
03:21They want to deep dive into it, to experience it, to come and to see it firsthand rather
03:26than just limiting themselves to films or books.
03:29These days, heritage hospitality is not an excuse for bad hospitality.
03:33When Indira Gandhi stripped the royals of their privileges, it dealt a blow to coffers
03:37of most of the royal families in India.
03:40Faced with the challenge of sustainability, many royal properties since then have converted
03:45into heritage hotels.
03:47The greatest ideology, thought process and interest has been to be able to get the money
03:53back and to put it back into the property and to make it sustainable, keep it alive.
03:59And I think the important part of it is the fact that, again, something that my father
04:02believes in and has been doing is living heritage.
04:05It's not a dead monument.
04:07In 1971, the then king of Udaipur, Maharana Bhagwat Singh Mewar, converted their summer
04:12home, the Lake Palace, into a heritage property.
04:15However, this transformation from being the royals to hoteliers was not easy for the royal
04:20family in Udaipur.
04:22They lacked professional skills to manage the business.
04:25Hence, Bhagwat Singh approached the Taj Group of Tata's to operate the hotel on a lease
04:29basis.
04:30Don't you think there is still an obsession about living luxuriously like the royal life
04:37which is also attracting us?
04:39No, definitely.
04:40It's not something that I don't like.
04:42It's just something that I would want to put in perspective.
04:50So what is it that he's really describing?
04:52At the end of the day, he's really describing the quality.
04:54He's really describing an attribute or a trait or a personality or a character or an expectation
05:00that is there.
05:01Could be from a cloth or could be from a person, could be from a building, could be from a
05:04car.
05:05An image of Sudha Moorthy bowing down to a royal family sparked a debate.
05:09Whether earlier forms of showing respect were symbols of hierarchy still exist in the world's
05:14largest democracy.
05:16A lot of archaic protocols still in place in the royal families in India.
05:21It's a general respect that I think is exceptionally important mutually.
05:26It's not something that is a one-sided segment.
05:29This is something that needs to be aware of on both ends.
05:34And I think giving and taking respect is a beautiful gesture for humanity.
05:39Beyond philanthropy and hospitality, the other ways that several royals across the country
05:44are striving to stay relevant are heritage and environmental conservation, the age-old
05:49practice of joining politics or diving into the entertainment industry.
05:54A democratic India may have relegated royal titles to the past, but there are many erstwhile
05:59monarchs who continue to draw inspiration from their heritage to find relevance, revenue
06:05and respect.
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