The remarks, made on the Season 3 premiere of Getting Drunk with Madira Vogue hosted by Priyanka Arora, tie venue closures across India's metro cities to consumer psychology rather than economics alone. Shrikanth founded Scandalous Foods, a company that supplies Indian sweets to restaurants and cafés.
Shrikanth said hospitality concepts often misread their customers. "Indians talk about newness, but consume familiarity," he said, explaining that diners may praise experimental menus online while ordering classics such as whiskey sours and old fashioneds in practice.
He said many venues invest heavily in aesthetics and marketing while underestimating repeat-consumption patterns. "Bars are becoming studios for Instagram," he said, adding that businesses sometimes confuse virality with loyalty.
A Generational Shift
On younger consumers, Shrikanth drew a contrast with the previous generation. He said millennials associated bars with socializing, while Gen Z increasingly approaches nightlife through digital identity. "People are going out for Instagram, not for conversations anymore," he said.
He attributed the change partly to social-media exposure and wellness trends, though he did not cite supporting data. Independent research has documented declining alcohol consumption among younger adults in several markets, but the interview did not reference specific studies, and the claims reflect his observations rather than verified statistics.
A Critique of Startup Culture
The conversation also addressed India's startup ecosystem, which Shrikanth said overstates the importance of fundraising. "Fundraising is a means to an end, not the end," he said, characterizing the typical founder's year as "364 days [of] grind" and "one day [of] fundraising."
He said some entrepreneurs pursue visibility and investor attention rather than solving consumer problems, and that the discipline required after raising capital is frequently underestimated.
The Company's Pitch
Shrikanth described Scandalous Foods as a "mithai operating partner" rather than another sweet shop, positioning it to address distribution, shelf-life, and packaging challenges for Indian desserts in the restaurant trade. The company offers traditional milk-based sweets in single-serve formats with longer shelf life, according to the interview.
The podcast said Scandalous Foods has raised over half a million dollars, a figure that could not be independently verified at the time of publication and is attributed to the broadcast.
Context
Bar and restaurant openings and closures have been frequent in Indian metros, though the interview did not present closure statistics. Madira Vogue, founded by Arora, describes itself as a digital lifestyle platform covering hospitality, food, and entrepreneurship.
The full episode is available on the platform's YouTube channel. Anthropic note: the views expressed are the speaker's own. This article is based on a single podcast interview; this publication has not independently corroborated the claims and will update the story if further reporting or comment becomes available.
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