JUI & RATAN SHARMA

HELLO! GETS TOGETHER WITH THE ENTERPRISING COUPLE, WHO CHANGED THE LUXURY HOSPITALITY SEGMENT IN RAJASTHAN, TAKING RISKS AND WORKING TOGETHER AS A WELL-OILED TEAM

- NOOR ANAND CHAWLA

They say it takes two to tango. One look at the phenomenal success of Jui and Ratan Sharma proves this adage true. Ratan is the chairman and managing director and Jui an executive director at Triton Hotels & Resorts, the company best known for bringing two of the most luxurious and elusive hospitality brands to India — Fairmont in Jaipur and Raffles in Udaipur. Riding high on the success of completing a decade of the former and a year of the latter, this enterprising couple is all set to expand their net.

“Our family has been into infrastructure construction for many years, but it was my father who diversified into building small hotels, which he’d run himself. When I joined the family business in 1998, I started looking after this aspect of the business,” explains Ratan, as he joins us over a Zoom call amid a hectic travel schedule, his partner in life and work the picture of poise beside him.

“I soon realised that running the hotels severely restricted our growth, as it left us with no time to do anything else,” Ratan adds. “I felt we must develop the property, but hand it over to renowned names in the hospitality segment to run.”

When his father was developing a new property in Kukas on the outskirts of Jaipur, in the early 2000s, a forward-thinking Ratan made the bold move of inviting an international hotel chain to run it.

“Ours was the first such international tie-up in Rajasthan, and people were shocked at our choice of location in the middle of nowhere. But our vision was clear. We chose it because it was located near the Amber and Jaigarh forts, both major tourist attractions on the golden triangle circuit.”