Sweet stuff of success: How KR Bhaskar rolled out a puran poli empire

The perfect puran poli is soft and a little crumbly. Its pillowy dough should melt in the mouth, leaving just the filling of lightly sweetened dal to flood the tastebuds, underpinned by accents of ghee.

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It’s not easy to make the perfect one. It’s harder still to make thousands every day. But puran polis are Bhaskar KR’s passion. The 46-year-old has been selling them for 23 years, first at a streetside stall in Bengaluru, then a formal shop, and now a 17-outlet chain in Karnataka, with a spin-off launched in Maharashtra in 2020.

This January, Bhaskar appeared on Season 2 of the investor pitch contest Shark Tank India, seeking ₹75 lakh in funding so that he could take his chain nationwide. The panel of investors turned him and his two partners down, not because the plan was not feasible, but because their business is already so profitable that they felt the men were not in tremendous need; they could potentially raise the funds on their own.

That’s quite a verdict for the son of impoverished farmer-farm-labourers. Bhaskar lost his father at four, and was raised by his mother Lacchamma, now 73. They were so poor that he had to quit school — “I wanted to study. I did well in exams and all my teachers liked me,” he says — and start work at the age of 10. He moved from his home town of Kundapur to Bengaluru, and worked in eateries for eight years, as a cleaner and a waiter.

“All that time, deep down, I wanted to build something of my own,” he says. He teamed up with friends and set up his first few enterprises while still in his teens — a paan shop, a snack stall selling bajjis, a tea stall. But with no experience, they all failed.

Then Bhaskar decided to pay more attention to business models, marketing and brand promotion. He took a job at the coffee counter of a restaurant called Nirmala in 1996 and decided to wait for a plan to take definite shape. As it turned out, a frequent customer named Venugopal Rao was an established puran poli supplier. He made his product at home, and sold it in packets to grocery stores in Bengaluru.

“I visited his home and saw his entire family hard at work on the puran polis. That inspired me,” Bhaskar says. The young man began to volunteer at Rao’s home, in his spare time, and learnt to perfect this dish. Three years later, in 1999, Bhaskar opened a small puran poli stall in Bengaluru. He was 23.

Before opening that stall, he conducted rounds of trials, serving puran poli free to customers. This way he collected feedback and built a base of people excited about his launch.

As his business grew, he hired hardworking migrants like himself, who had fled failing farms in the hopes of earning a living, to help. Together, he and his team ensured that the puran polis were fresh, flavourful and consistent. The stall was a hit. One couple visited regularly for three years. That was a true compliment, Bhaskar says.

The young entrepreneur began to attract the attention of investors such as Raghavendra Ithal, now 51, another puran poli supplier in Bengaluru. Ithal became a friend and confidante; most vitally, he offered frequent infusions in the form of interest-free loans.

“He is a very hardworking and dedicated person. I saw how he did market research, visiting various shops to understand what customers want. I helped him whenever he was in need because I couldn’t see him suffer. Now, I see him growing and I feel motivated,” Ithal says.

In 2015, Bhaskar swapped his stall for a gleaming, well-lit shop. He named it Bhaskar’s Mane Holige (Bhaskar’s Homemade Puranpolis). Through a friend, he met Murali, the host of a popular Kannada cooking show named Oggarane Dabbi (The Spice Box), and ended up cooking a series of dishes on the show, in 35 appearances between 2015 and 2018. “The show made me popular and I started getting calls for franchises,” he says.

Today, there are 17 Mane Holige outlets across the state, including in Mangaluru, Hubballi and Mysuru in Karnataka.

Then his dream of expanding beyond Karnataka came true. In 2020, Vittal Shetty, an entrepreneur born in Kundapur and based in Maharashtra, invited Bhaskar to bring his concept to that state. Later that year, he, Shetty and fellow businessman Saurabh Chaudhary opened the first Bhaskar Puranpoli Ghar (Bhaskar’s House of Puranpoli), in Thane. There is now one each in Pune, Mumbai and Kalyan too. “I partnered with them because language was a barrier, affecting the idea of going pan-India,” Bhaskar says.

As he continues to work towards that pan-India dream, he has expanded his menus in both chains. He now offers 24 varieties of puran poli, including chocolate, jackfruit and coconut. He has added other snacks such as rava laddu and banana chips too, in response to customer demand.

There are about six people working in each outlet; most are rural migrants. Bhaskar still loves to make puran polis and says he often helps out during major festivals, when excitement peaks and orders do too. His next step will likely be an outlet in Dubai. “A businessman has reached out to buy a franchise.”

His wife Sumitra R, 39, a homemaker, and their daughter Gayana B, 16, now know a very different life from the one they started out in together. “But we are all very grounded,” he says. “I had always wanted to do something for my mother, who is an inspiration to me, and for my wife and daughter. So I bought two houses, one in Kundapur and another in Bengaluru, as gifts to them, for the happiness they have brought me.”