The Phone Call They Thought Was a Prank: How One Order From Anushka Sharma Saved a Struggling Mumbai Restaurant

Some stories about celebrity influence are about glamour. This one is about survival. A small chole bhature shop in Mumbai’s Chembur neighborhood was reportedly sitting on roughly ₹18 lakh in debt and considering shutting down for good. Today, that same shop is said to be pulling in close to ₹2 crore a month. The turning point wasn’t a loan, an investor, or a lucky break in the traditional sense — it was a single Instagram post from Anushka Sharma.

It Started With a Search for “Delhi-Style” Chole Bhature

The chain of events began when Anushka Sharma was on the hunt for authentic, Delhi-style chole bhature in Mumbai — reportedly for her husband, cricketer Virat Kohli. Comedian Abhishek Upmanyu had mentioned a small Chembur eatery online, and that offhand recommendation eventually made its way to Anushka.

What happened next is the kind of detail that makes this story worth telling properly, rather than just as a two-line update.

The Brothers Thought It Was a Prank

Before any public post went up, the restaurant’s owners — brothers Jaspal and Mahinder — started receiving repeated calls from someone claiming to be calling on behalf of Virat Kohli’s household, requesting two plates of chole bhature be delivered to Juhu. According to Jaspal, the calls came eight times, and when the caller began asking for bank account details for payment, his suspicion only grew.

“I told Mahinder, this woman is troubling me. She has called eight times and is asking for my bank details,” Jaspal recalled. Mahinder’s response captured the reality of their situation perfectly: with the account balance already negative, there was barely anything left to steal.

It was only after several more calls that the caller finally clarified she was calling from Virat Kohli’s home — a claim Jaspal still found hard to believe, given the gap between a small neighborhood shop and one of India’s most recognizable celebrity households.

One Instagram Post, Immediate Chaos

Anushka later posted about her find on Instagram, crediting Upmanyu for the discovery and describing the food as “ekdum-Delhi-jaise” chole bhature in Mumbai. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Within half an hour, a massive crowd had gathered outside the shop. Phones rang nonstop. Police reportedly arrived to help manage the crowd forming outside.

Orders came in far beyond what the small operation could handle — some customers ordering six plates, others ten, with the restaurant running short on stock almost immediately. The brothers reportedly had to start sourcing soaked chickpeas from neighbors just to keep up, while some customers waited over two hours for just two or three plates.

From Shutdown Talk to ₹2 Crore a Month

What makes this story more than just a viral moment is what came after the initial rush. Rather than fading as a one-day spike in foot traffic, the attention translated into sustained business, with reports now placing the restaurant’s monthly revenue at roughly ₹2 crore — a dramatic reversal for a business that had been roughly ₹18 lakh in debt and reportedly considering closure not long before.

Why This Story Resonates Beyond the Numbers

Stories about celebrity endorsements accidentally transforming small businesses aren’t new, but this one lands harder because of the human details layered underneath it. A restaurant owner too skeptical to believe his luck. A negative bank balance that made a scam seem almost pointless to worry about. A crowd so large it required police assistance for a shop that, days earlier, had been on the verge of shutting its doors.

It’s also a useful reminder of just how much reach a single, casual social media post from a major celebrity can carry — not through a paid partnership or sponsored content, but simply through genuine, unprompted enthusiasm for a good plate of food.

The Takeaway

For Jaspal and Mahinder, the entire episode still seems to carry a note of disbelief — the gap between “small chole bhature shop in Chembur” and “handpicked by one of India’s biggest celebrity couples” was never something they expected to close. But it did, and the numbers now reflect it. Sometimes the most compelling entertainment stories aren’t about the celebrities at all — they’re about the ordinary lives that get pulled, unexpectedly, into their orbit.

 

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