A Legend Reborn

An iconic hotel that changed a city’s cultural landscape undergoes a transformation of its own—but holds on to its heart

- Sunil Sethi

In the 1970s, before his films became internationally lauded, Ismail Merchant treated the lobby of The Oberoi in New Delhi as a sort of private office. The late film-maker could be found parked there from breakfast onwards, meeting friends and associates, and making free calls from the reception’s complimentary telephone.

He was not the only one. Over the years, the great and the good of the world have nested here—from Omar Sharif, the Beatles, Mick Jagger and Giorgio Armani to generations of Bollywood stars, along with heads of state such as Queen Mathilde of Belgium, and Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai. Many of the capital’s denizens treated it as a sort of public drawing room-cum-pleasure dome, while corporate and official paladins retreated here to confer over matters of import.

NEW YEAR, NEW TRICKS

On 1 January this year, when the Oberoi Group’s flagship property reopened after a two-year makeover, steered by its 89-year-old executive chairman PRS “Biki” Oberoi, the hordes flocked back. A mix of old patrons, revellers and groups from the travel trade gently steered through the glittering expanse of its marble lobby, multiple restaurants, bars and lounges. The job of accomplishing the mammoth Ì€ 600 crore renovation went to New York-based hospitality designer Adam D Tihany, whose work includes the Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas; The King David Hotel, Jerusalem; and The Beverly Hills Hotel. Stationed between the Delhi Golf Club and Humayun’s Tomb, Tihany was conscious, he says, of The Oberoi’s iconic location; yet his effort was to bridge “innovation and time-honoured tradition…while preparing it for the next generation of guests and admirers.”