Rahul Akerkar Is Gearing Up For Act Two

When he launched Indigo, Rahul Akerkar changed the way Mumbai dined. Two decades later, he’s set to repeat that phenomenal success with Qualia.

- Arun Janardhan

If you build it, they will come,” Rahul Akerkar quotes the famous 1989 Kevin Costner-starrer Field Of Dreams, replacing “he” with “they”. In the film, Costner’s character assumes that the imaginary voice he’s hearing is referring to a baseball field. In Akerkar’s case, there is no fictional voice; what he had to build was a restaurant. Qualia is Akerkar 2.0 (or 3.0 if you consider Under the Over, that came before Indigo), but for the chef-restaurateur who changed the way Mumbai ate in the 2000s, this could prove another point.

“It’s the whole adage about ‘do as I say and not as I do’,” says Akerkar, who turns 60 this month. “If this does well, it will be a reaffirmation for me. When we set up Indigo, we were ahead of the curve. We are ahead of the curve with Qualia too. I don’t know how far ahead – but if you build it, they will come.”

The delayed opening of the restaurant feels exaggerated, because of the anticipation surrounding it. Followers of Akerkar’s culinary and hospitality skills have been waiting roughly four years, since he exited the company he founded, DeGustibus Hospitality, after differences with investors. The organisation, which runs Neel, Tote on the Turf, the Indigo Deli chain and the catering service Moveable Feast, left a wound in Akerkar that’s perhaps not fully healed, but will ease with Qualia’s success.