We are Bullish on the Retail Space,

Nirupa Shankar, Joint Managing Director, Brigade Group, on the mall’s current focus areas, innovations and much more

- Rasul Bailay

Nirupa Shankar is the Joint Managing Director of Brigade Group, overseeing the Bengaluru-based real estate company's office, retail and hotel portfolio.

N Brigade operates three malls in Bengaluru, including Orion Mall at Brigade Gateway, The Arcade at Brigade Metropolis and Brigade Solitaire. The company currently has various other projects that are either in the planning or construction stages in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Trivandrum, among other cities.

Shankar talks about India's future potential as a retail market, the company's upcoming malls and the new breed of exciting beauty brands that have mushroomed in India over the years. Edited excerpts:

You run three malls in Bengaluru and now you are also going to Chennai, Hyderabad and other cities.

Our primary focus is on the South. Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad are three key focus markets for us.

Malls are going through sea changes with a lot of interesting elements added to them. What can we expect in your new models?

For us, as a mall developer, it is important to look at the design aspects of a mall. When you create a shopping mall, people come there for many reasons other than shopping. So, we are trying to do a heavier focus on all the other elements. Of course, you'll have apparel and department stores and large anchor stores in our mall. At the same time, we are trying to focus on creating more food and beverage (F&B) options-we are now allocating 12-15 percent of the mall to F&B from 7 percent, earlier.

Similarly, we would earmark a larger space of 10-15 percent in our upcoming malls for entertainment, up from 7-8 percent.