Virat Kohli’s order turns Chembur’s cramped 250‑sq‑ft chole bhature stall into a 3,000‑plate juggernaut. The 9‑seat joint, once teetering on ₹1.8 million debt, saw its fortunes reverse when the former star’s home requested two plates.
The brothers, Jaspal and Mahinder Singh Khalsa, had planned to shut the shop down after January 2022. By September, rent and groceries were piling up, and the two men were ready to hand over the keys. A single Instagram story from stand‑up comic Abhishek Upmanyu changed everything.
Upmanyu’s photo of steaming chole bhature went viral, and the next day Anushka Sharma tagged the outlet while searching for authentic Delhi‑style plates for Kohli. Fans flooded the page, and within an hour, the kitchen was swamped with orders that would have crushed any 9‑seat setup.
Police were called when crowds threatened to spill onto the street. The shop’s stock ran out in minutes, and the brothers had to borrow soaked chickpeas from neighbours to keep the kitchen alive. A single plate could take more than two hours to prepare, a dramatic shift from the few minutes it once took.
Today the outlet churns out roughly 125 kg of chickpeas daily, serving 3,000 plates and pulling in about ₹20 million each month. The Khalsa brothers have since opened three more outlets across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, turning a crisis into a culinary franchise.
With a growing fan base that includes cricket legends and Bollywood stars, the next challenge is scaling the kitchen to meet the demand of an ever‑expanding table. A fifth outlet is slated for launch next month, and the team is already scouting a 500‑sq‑ft space to keep the plates hot and the fans happy.