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The late senior Lulla was instrumental in helping shape Dubai. He spoke Arabic fluently, just like a local tribesman. He was a popular Indian businessman and a pioneer who brought quality hospitality to the UAE.
#Millionaire #PrakashLulla #Businessman
See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos
The late senior Lulla was instrumental in helping shape Dubai. He spoke Arabic fluently, just like a local tribesman. He was a popular Indian businessman and a pioneer who brought quality hospitality to the UAE.
#Millionaire #PrakashLulla #Businessman
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NewsTranscript
00:00You must have heard about the Astoria and the Ambassador Group of Hotels.
00:04Well, I'm sitting here with the founder of the hotel, Mr. Prakash Lulla.
00:09Well, he has a very interesting background and we are here to talk about his life history
00:14and more importantly, his father's life history.
00:17He was a visionary and he is part of the changing Dubai.
00:23His father, his late father, L.R. Lulla came here in 1950 and started the first hotel in
00:30Dubai.
00:31So, thank you so much, Mr. Prakash, for giving us this interview to Gulf News.
00:35Mrs. Nandina, thank you very much for taking the time to come and see me today.
00:40I've got to correct you, I'm not the founder of this organization, it was my father, interestingly,
00:49my grandfather came to Dubai somewhere around 1942, as I used to hear from my mom that
00:55he came here before the independence.
00:58And then, my father used to work first for the Sharjah Airport and one day, his highness
01:06Sheikh Rashid called him and said, I'm thinking of starting an airport in Dubai.
01:12My father was hired and along with him, two other Indian gentlemen and my father's roll
01:18number, till he passed away in 2009, at the decree of his highness, was still 00001.
01:26My father in those days used to see that people would come and sleep at the airport itself.
01:34There were no proper facilities, so he started a two-bedroom guest house and father used
01:42to work at the airport and he used to also work with the British Petroleum Company.
01:47So, one room was 365 days taken by the British Petroleum Company and that's when the real
01:55hospitality sector started, after which he started an 8-room hotel in 1957 called the
02:01Airlines Hotel.
02:04His highness was very happy by having this hotel, then he extended another 16 rooms and
02:11eventually when they did the dredging of the creek to allow bigger ships to come in,
02:16the foundation of that building became weak and Sheikh Rashid then told my dad, let's
02:23make the tallest building in the country.
02:29That's how the Ambassador was started.
02:31It was actually the vision of his highness Sheikh Rashid and the Ambassador Hotel is
02:38an 8-storey building and I'll share with you a very interesting picture where Sheikh
02:45Rashid himself and the respected sheikhs of all the other six emirates had been invited
02:53for dinner by Sheikh Rashid and a nice shamiya was erected on the roof of the hotel and that's
03:01a very interesting picture that just speaks about the hotel.
03:05Wow, that's so nice.
03:07So much memory there and then tell us about any experiences that your father taught you.
03:17I myself requested my dad to, if not to write a book because he was too modest in that sense,
03:27I told him why don't you at least just pen your thoughts and whenever we used to meet
03:34the old timers and the things they used to talk about were actually strange to me but
03:39the old timers used to know and he somehow never got to write the book but there are
03:47a lot of memoirs he wrote down which he shared with me.
03:53Being the first hotel which had continental chefs and in those days all the dignitaries
04:02like Queen Elizabeth herself, Indira Gandhi, Narsimha Rao, they all have come and stayed
04:08here.
04:09All the film actors from Amitabh Bachchan to probably Anil Kapoor, they've all come
04:17and stayed over here and all the cricketers, I was very fond of cricket and every time
04:25they used to have matches in Sharjah, all of them used to come and spend time with me
04:30over here.
04:32Dad was lucky to spend a lot of time with his Highnesses and because he could speak
04:39Arabic as fluently as a Bedouin, it broke a lot of barriers so his Highness Sheikh Mohammed
04:50was very close to him and Sheikh Mohammed always used to appreciate people with new
04:55ideas and there are a lot of projects that my father suggested to his Highness and immediately
05:06the catering contracts used to be given to my father, we started the offshore catering
05:11contracts, construction companies, all of that in discussion with his Highness, a lot
05:18of suggestions were given by my father and of course Sheikh Rashid was a visionary, interestingly
05:28my father used to tell me that Sheikh Rashid once took a few friends to Sheikh Zayed Road,
05:35at that time it used to be called Dubai, Abu Dhabi Road and he collected a few pebbles
05:40and put six or seven of them and took a few others and scattered it and he said you all
05:48must know that one day there will be a building in proportion to that and he was referring
05:53to the World Trade Center which was then the tallest building and of course his Highness
05:58Sheikh Mohammed has carried forward that vision and now you have the Burj Khalifa, so interesting
06:06times that my father lived in, he saw everything come up.
06:12And you yourself were born and raised here?
06:14I was born in India, but I came here in the same year and I have lived here ever since,
06:23schooled here, which school did you go to?
06:27To the St. Mary's and I wanted to study law, that's when in 1980 I shifted to Indian High
06:33School but then destiny had something else planned, so I got involved in the hotel.
06:40And when did you take over the mantle of your dad's business?
06:44More so from 82 till about 86, I was not given any official title in the hotel because my
06:54father wanted me to work in each and every department and he was a very strict disciplinarian
07:00himself and I'm thankful to him, right down to butchery, I was made to work in that department
07:11also, so around 86 or 87 is when I was given an office and added responsibilities and by
07:19which time as I said I'm thankful to him, I could understand every time a paper came
07:24to me, what it meant, what those numbers meant and you learn a lot more by actually
07:31doing rather than studying about it in school.
07:34Absolutely, so you started from the scratch, I mean he didn't want to like put you right
07:39up there, he wanted you to be where everyone starts from, you know right in the bottom
07:45and what was that learning experience for you?
07:48It was fantastic, the reason is one day I told my father, I said all these cricketers
07:55come and they see somebody else sitting on the boss's chair, not me and I feel funny
08:03telling them I'm working at the reception, like Kapil, Dev, Sachin, they were all my
08:07friends, so my father did mention to me once, he says son if I want I can get you the boss's
08:13chair immediately but I'll be digging your grave for you and he gave me an example, he
08:18said if I sit in the maintenance department of the hotel, I can assure you that the room
08:24boy on the fourth floor will not leave his job at 2.59 knowing that senior Mr. Lulla
08:30is in the hotel, that's what he wanted me to develop, that personality, your presence
08:35has to be felt, respect cannot be demanded, it has to be commanded and he wanted me to
08:42go through the entire exercise of earning that respect and today I enjoy the respect
08:49of all my seniors and these are people whom I can't do without.
08:54Absolutely, that's so interesting and what is happening with the Ambassador Hotel?
09:01The Ambassador Hotel started in 1968, it's a very solid structure, we were given two
09:12options, one to demolish the building and make a new structure or they wanted us to
09:21upgrade the entire hotel, especially the piping, the wirings, so we opted for option number
09:29two and then Vassal asked us to make sure that it's done before the 2020, so I perceive
09:37by about March 2020, the hotel will be up and running and until then, at umpteen number
09:45of parties, I've been hearing people saying, hey, Ambassador closed down, I said until,
09:50everybody, you, you know us, so Ambassador is very much on track and that's a flagship
10:02and that's the start of history of Dubai, hospitality in Dubai started basically with
10:09the Ambassador Hotel and that was something that His Highness Sheikh Rashid used to pride
10:14upon, as I will share some pictures with you, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed used to visit
10:20the hotel often with the dignitaries that came and they would take pride that we have
10:25a hotel that no other state has.
10:27Right, and so right now, do you have a new design in place?
10:32No, the structure is the same but a lot of the back end work and the interiors is being
10:41worked upon.
10:42Okay, that's great.
10:43As a wrap, like obviously you owe everything to the land of UAE.
10:48Absolutely.
10:49Because, I mean, this is where you were born and raised, where your dad created history,
10:55so what would you like to add to that in terms of what the UAE has given you?
11:01My father passed away in 2009 and in January, he passed away in August, in January, while
11:11I was coming to the hotel, my father just one day told me, he said, son, sometime soon
11:15we will go and meet His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and I want to thank him.
11:20We have cars, we have drivers, we have domestic workers, we have a nice house in India, we
11:26have a nice living standard here and it's all thanks to the Muktum family and I remember
11:32telling my dad, I said, why are you being so philosophical?
11:36He said, go and thank His Highness, but it was not to be.
11:41Strangely enough, after the immersion of the ashes, one day I was driving to Shirdi and
11:49halfway through, my cousin Kamlesh, who is the manager of the hotel, called me and he
11:53says, you know, His Highness is looking for you.
11:55So I said, yeah, right.
11:57He doesn't even know me.
11:58He said, no, I mean it.
12:01I put my UAE chip on the phone and within 10 minutes I got a call from the office of
12:06His Highness, saying that he was coming in a jet and when he opened the newspaper, he
12:13saw the full page ad placed by Indian High School, because my father is also a trustee
12:17and he exclaimed that Mr. Bhullar served my father so well and I want to see the children
12:25tomorrow.
12:26So the next day we came back and at 7 o'clock we went to His Highness' palace.
12:34He personally met us.
12:36It was 10 minutes and after knowing that my father was quite ill for the last 5 years,
12:44he genuinely meant it, that he was very sorry for us and he had to go somewhere.
12:52We got up and he put his hands on mine and my brother's shoulders and he says, look,
12:57if you need anything, you can come and see me at any time and he turned around to Mr.
13:05Gagave and just nodded, in the sense like, you know, let them come and all we did was
13:13say, Your Highness, you are like our father and that's when I told him, I said, strangely
13:19in January, my father wanted to come and thank you, so much so that the clothes we
13:24are wearing, courtesy your family.
13:27And he was so humble and down to earth.
13:30He said, no, no, your father worked very hard all his life.
13:34He deserved what he got.
13:36What more can you ask?
13:38I mean, in no other country you would see a Prime Minister or President calling somebody
13:43and thanking him for his contribution in the 50s.
13:46Today you have hotels that touch the sky, but to actually recall the past and give us
13:56that kind of love and respect, which money cannot buy.
14:00That's what the land of UAE has given us.
14:05What a lovely story of Mr. Lulla.
14:07For more on this, please log on to www.girlfriends.com.
14:12A full line-up of the story is online as well as you can see it on print.
14:18This is Anjana Kumar for Girls News.