Of Silver Platters

Upasna Konidela, of the Apollo Hospitals family, talks about eating healthy, while sampling food fit for royalty.

- Anoothi Vishal

A long chandelier-lit corridor leads to an intimate antechamber. Tables here, clothed in stiff white, are offset by mauve cushioned chairs. There are candles and glass and discreet florals. The new Dum Pukht at ITC Kohenur in Hyderabad, the Indian hospitality major’s biggest launch this year, is quite a ‘power restaurant’, but discreetly so— designed, surprisingly, as a subdued royal zenana, unlike its more opulent siblings elsewhere in the country. It is only fitting then that I meet one of Hyderabad’s best-known young women entrepreneurs for dinner here.

Like the biryani we will inevitably sample towards the end of the meal, 31-year-old Upasna Konidela comes with serious pedigree. The granddaughter of Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals, she is vice chairperson, CSR, Apollo Foundation, and managing director of Apollo Life, a startup funded by the parent group.

Quite like her formidable mother (Shobana Kamineni, executive vice chairperson, Apollo Hospitals), aunts and cousins, Konidela is well-entrenched in the family business. But as we break bread (in this case, mande, a local wheat bread that resembles the North Indian roomali roti), and as I listen to her anecdotes about a changing Hyderabad and its entrepreneurial culture, it becomes clear that my guest is not content to be just a ‘scion’ who has had it all on a platter.