Ahead of 50th anniversary, Sion's iconic Guru Kripa, whose samosas were loved by Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, debuts in South Mumbai
In the late 1960s, Vishindas Wadhwa — whose family came to India during Partition and settled in Mumbai — found success selling samosas from a thela (hand cart). In 1975, he went on to establish what would become Sion's beloved Guru Kripa. Over the next five decades, it earned a loyal following for its samosas, tikki chole, and a range of savouries, as well as mithais like the Sindhi specialty Sev Barfi, made with khoya and sev. Its reputation spread far beyond the neighbourhood. But for South Mumbai residents, there was always one complaint: 'It's too far!'
Ahead of its 50th anniversary this August, third-generation custodians Bharat and Sunaina have addressed this long-standing gripe by opening Guru Kripa's first branch — just a stone's throw from the Royal Opera House on Charni Road.
'What better gift to my grandfather than taking his culinary repository to a bigger audience,' said Bharat on a weekday afternoon, just two days after the shutters were lifted.
Spread across 800 sq ft, the Charni Road outpost functions as a mithai retail outlet and delivery kitchen and offers an elevated experience. While the original 1,500 sqft store evokes nostalgia with its classic mithai-and-snack shop vibe, the new branch is more contemporary in design. There's a truck-style mithai station, a hamper counter, and a 'wall of fame' showcasing celebrity visitors and key milestones in the brand's journey.
'We wanted it to be an experience centre where every corner tells a story,' Bharat shared. 'So we gave it a retro South Bombay touch.' Pointing to a wall behind the savoury counter, he drew our attention to a series of black-and-white photos featuring the Asiatic Library, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and the BMC building. 'This is our ode to South Bombay.'
Unlike the original outlet, where customers can grab a quick samosa while standing outside or enjoy a full meal in the air-conditioned seating area, this new branch is strictly takeaway and delivery.
'We did want a small dine-in section,' Bharat admitted. 'But it didn't fit the space and what we set out to do with this experiment.' In the hour we spent at the shop, the counter stayed busy with walk-ins sampling mithai or picking up snacks for home. 'The response has been great, people are happy that it's now accessible,' he said, adding that early favourites include samosas, gulab jamun, sugar-free dates mithai and their recently launched Biscoff barfi, and Jain-friendly snacks like chole tikki, sandwiches, and Sindhi-speciality dal pakwan.
Guru Kripa's samosas, of course, have a cult following of their own. Legend has it that Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were regulars, and that when Amitabh Bachchan suffered a near-fatal injury on the sets of Coolie, Vishindas Wadhwa distributed samosas while praying for his recovery. 'When Mr Bachchan learned of this, he visited us, enjoyed the samosas, and declared them his favourite,' Bharat recounted proudly.
We asked him for the real marker of success: the number of samosas sold. He smiled shyly before revealing, 'We sold 1,000 samosas each on day 1 and day 2.' Fifty years on, it seems life has come full circle for Vishindas Wadhwa's Guru Kripa.
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