Kathmandu, Feb 20 (Inditop.com) When Nepal’s last king Gyanendra ascended the throne in 2001 after the death of his elder brother in a palace massacre, some of the Hindu kingdom’s dailies carried photographs of the king’s aide de camp, a senior army official, tying his shoe lace in public. But for many young royals, now commoners, that life is a thing of the past.
Today, two years after the abolition of monarchy and Nepal’s royal family becoming commoners without privileges, it is business as usual for the republic’s former princesses who have been the quickest to adapt to the new way of life.
The three nieces of the deposed king were the first to seek to pay their taxes as well as their electricity and water bills. Now, one of them has gone a step further by opening a boutique in partnership with a cousin and an old school friend.
Sitashma Shah, the second child of Prince Dhirendra who perished with his elder brother King Birendra in the bloodbath at the Narayanhity royal palace, has become the talk of town with Beatification, the boutique she opened in Kathmandu last month with her cousin Rochana Shahi, and designer Vivek Upadhya.
While Rochana is the daughter of former queen Komal’s brother, Suraj Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, Vivek is the son of documentary maker Prem Upadhya, the first Nepali to graduate from Pune’s Film and Training Institute, and cousin of Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala.
The boutique continues to hit the headlines even today with people amazed by the sight of the former princesses waiting on customers and doing the tidying up and other work without demur.
Sitashma says she has had prior work experience. “I worked in a call centre in Scotland where I had gone to study business management,” she says. While Vivek is a chef by profession, Rochana is the only one in the trio who had never worked before.
“Now I am here at the boutique every day,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes as late as 11 p.m. And also enduring the long waits at government offices to clear the formalities.”
All three have been good friends since their school days at Kathmandu Academy and consequently, when Vivek began designing clothes, jewellery and shoes, he showed them to the two former royals.
“The turning point was the five saris I had designed and brought from India,” Vivek says. “They immediately sold out, making Sitashma tell me: let’s do something together.”
That was how the parent company, BARS International, was formed.
On Jan 14, it was inaugurated by the former queen herself, who was also among the first patrons, buying an azure blue sari beaded with Swarovski crystals.
Though Manisha Koirala could not attend the launch, Sunita Ahuja, the wife of another Bollywood star Govinda, turned up to the delight of the trio, buying a gold and black sari with a heavy velvet blouse and promising to show them off at the Filmfare awards in India.
Vivek is hoping his father’s Bollywood connections would come in handy. His father’s batch mates in Pune were Jaya Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa and Rakesh Roshan.
Nepal’s former crown princess Himani has promised to visit the boutique and the last king’s daughter, the former princess Prerana, accompanied her mother during the inauguration.
But the clientele till now is mostly from “commoners” who come wanting to feast their eyes on the unusual spectacle of the former princesses serving them.
The saris and lehengas, crafted in Delhi, Jaipur and Lucknow and richly embroidered, cost between Nepali Rs.6,000-35,000 while a line in western wear is also available at Besuited, an exporting house that is selling Beatification’s products.
While the original boutique is on the third floor of the shopping arcade of the upmarket Hotel de l’Annapurna, the three partners are already planning a new branch in Lalitpur town.
Sitashma says her two sisters, former princesses Puja and Dilasha, also plan to start something soon.
“We will talk about it soon,” she promises with a smile.
