Aditya Kilachand

Founder-CEO

Avas Wellness

Aditya Kilachand’s latest venture, luxury wellness villas in the resort town of Alibaug, has much to do with the spirit of the times. And Aditya still remains a most eligible bachelor

Child of Luxury & Plenitude

Interviewed by ASHISH VIRMANI

He was born in the 1970s, the time of pop music, flared jeans, Amitabh Bachchan and the Cold War; a time when the world was moving into a zone of peace and abundance; and a time when his mother, Shobhaa De, was to go on to prove her mettle as the Queen Bee of Bombay's swish and intellectual set. If Aditya Kilachand today dabbles in luxury, real estate and otherwise, for his livelihood, then he is a product of the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, which has led to his calling in life.

Aditya graduated from Boston College in the US in 1997. “College was a process of learning to be independent,” he says. As he puts it, “The most impactful learning at Boston College happened to be outside the classroom. Living in America on my own was a huge experience in itself. The network of people I was exposed to and the experiences I had there were invaluable. Those were a wonderful four years of college.”

On his return to Bombay, Aditya started a fashion internet portal Almari.com just around the time of the dotcom boom. It was a fashion aggregator that featured clothes from India’s top designers, many of whom were personal friends. If it didn’t exactly break the bank, Aditya says it was because Almari.com was ahead of its time. Perhaps there is some truth in that. More so because many fashion aggregators like Myntra and Nykaa that were to follow, years later, proved to be extremely successful. Eventually Almari.com was bought over by Vijay Mallya’s UB Group in 2001 just before the dotcom bubble of that era went bust.

Aditya’s subsequent collaboration with friend and winemaker, Vikrant Chougule, for the exclusive members-only nightclub Prive in South Bombay took off in 2006 and two years later Aditya added the adjacent Japanese restaurant, Tetsuma to his portfolio. Looking back on those early projects, which have since closed, the entrepreneur says, “Luxury is exclusive. I learnt that if I’m serving up luxury in Prive, I need to keep the numbers small – 200 or 300 people at the most. It can’t be 500 or 600 people! As for Tetsuma it was one of the first standalone Japanese restaurants in the city featuring contemporary Japanese cuisine and we were fortunate to have a good run of five or six years.”

Currently, Aditya is involved with Avas Wellness, a wellness community of 16 luxury villas, that he’s setting up in the township of Alibaug, near Bombay. While Alibaug already has the reputation for being the sanctuary of well-heeled and socially well-connected billionaires, Aditya is taking it a notch higher with his exclusive villas. With Sussanne Khan as the creative director handling the interiors of the villas and brand ambassador Virat Kohli who also happens to own one of the villas, Aditya has also ensured the participation of Adar Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India and actor, Ram Kapoor, as investors and home owners in the project. There are plans for a wellness centre and spa, a state-of-the-art gym, swimming pools and more facilities to create a community for holistic living. “Health is the new luxury and that’s going to be one of the pillars on which our Avas community is founded,” says Aditya. He adds, “I’ve spent a lot of my childhood in Alibaug. I realised the one thing I missed there was a sense of community. I want to build a community for like-minded people who believe in holistic wellness and health and are looking at a certain level of luxury while pursuing their wellness journey.” The newly-turned realtor is midway through the project and estimates that it will be completed by mid-2024.

Aditya is a keen golfer and has been golfing at Bombay's Willingdon Sports Club for over 25 years now. That’s his enduring passion in life but he has also golfed in courses around the world –  in the US, London, Spain, Italy, Bali, Malaysia and Phuket to name a few locations. His favourite golf course of all is at Pebble Beach, California, and he was there just a few months ago, among vistas that he describes as “breathtaking”. I ask whether he’s planning on setting up a golf course at his Avas Wellness community and his voice flares up audibly in enthusiasm. “It’s something that I’m actively looking at. Though finding a suitable tract of land for it remains a challenge. I’d like to maybe set up at least a nine-hole golf course for the residents at Avas Wellness,” he effervesces.

Incidentally, Aditya remains a bachelor though he’s dated some pretty interesting women along the way – including singer, Kanika Kapoor at one point. I ask him if he’s remained single so that he can date more women (!) and he laughs. “I may have been thinking along those lines in my 30s perhaps. But I’m 47 now and I definitely want to settle down in marriage and start a family by the time I’m 50 years old.” And with that he signs off, going into his next meeting of the day, of which there are an endless succession.