'Biki' Oberoi, who ushered in uber-luxury hotel era, passes away

Sandeep Dikshit

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New Delhi, November 14

PRS ‘Biki’ Oberoi, the inheritor of India’s first five-star hotel chain who honed and refined his legendary father Mohan Singh Oberoi’s legacy, passed away on Tuesday morning at the age of 94 years.

Biki as a child was witness to his father running the Calcutta hotel during World War II and took over the mantle in 1984 after the group had expanded to nine hotels. Under him, the group’s business now spans hotels, cruises and resorts in seven countries under three brands — Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Trident Hotels and Maiden Hotel.

With advancing age, Biki had made his nephew Arjun the executive chairman of the group and son Vikramjit the CEO. Arjun is the son of Tilak ‘Tikki’ Raj Singh Oberoi, who had worked in tandem with younger brother Biki to develop the hotel chain but passed away prematurely in 1984.

Oberoi Sr was born in Bhaun village of Pakistan’s Punjab province and worked at The Cecil in Shimla. He went on to buy it out with all his family wealth in 1934. In 1938, he capitalised on the cholera epidemic-induced rock bottom rates for Grand Hotel in Calcutta to buy it out. Five years later, Mohan Singh Oberoi became the first Indian to own an upmarket hotel chain when he bought out Associated Hotels of India in 1943.

Biki in 1954 was asked to run the Maidens in Delhi and then the Grand Hotel in Calcutta. He was also given charge of four hotels in Pakistan but those were acquired by the Government of Pakistan after the 1965 war.

Biki and elder brother ‘Tikki’ then took the plunge in the large hotel format in 1965 by setting up the Oberoi next to the sylvan Delhi Golf Course.

In 1968, Associated Hotels of India merged with East India Hotels and the next project was The Trident in Mumbai in 1973 and its sister hotel The Oberoi in 1986.

By then Tikki had passed away and the family patriarch had health problems, leaving the field for Biki, who then went for a major expansion, including the ultra-luxurious The Oberoi Rajvilas followed by properties in Agra, Udaipur and Ranthambore.

The year 2008 was a severe test for Biki’s resilience when terrorists attacked the Oberoi-Trident hotel. Biki was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.

His life was summed up by another connoisseur of fine living, Anand Mahindra. “PRS Oberoi passed away this morning. He made ‘Oberoi’ a global byword for the Indian luxury hospitality experience and the first to put an Indian hotel on the very top of global rankings. He also rallied the group heroically but quietly post the 26/11 attack on their Mumbai flagship. He was a class act. Period,” wrote Mahindra on X.