Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan’s neighbourhood ice cream parlour went on to do over Rs 300 cr business; Salman Khan, Hema Malini would drop in too | Bollywood News

Bollywood celebrities are often associated with fitness but much like their viewers, they have a sweet tooth as well. So when an ice cream parlour opened in their neighbourhood of Juhu in Mumbai in 1984, it became their favourite spot to hang out. Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Hema Malini, and even the ones who were younger than them, like Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, started frequenting the only outlet of Naturals Ice Cream.
Earlier, in a chat with Telegraph, their founder, Srinivas Kamath, shared that he started his store selling pav bhaji because he wasn’t certain if people would flock to an ice cream place. Back in those days, the idea of ice cream parlours wasn’t as popular. Soon, the ice creams took off, and Srinivas discontinued the pav bhaji. Since many celebrities lived in Juhu, their store would be frequented many famous people, which definitely helped their business. “In Juhu, a lot of film stars would walk in. I remember seeing Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, even Amitabh Bachchan and Jeetendra! The next generation of actors prefer their ice cream home-delivered,” he told the publication.
He added, “I opened the Juhu Scheme outlet because I felt that the crowd would appreciate ice cream. Film stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini would live close . People had already started recognising our ice cream.” Not just the older stars, even the then-young stars like Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt liked to drop their store.
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In an old picture shared on their Facebook page, Naturals revealed that Aamir, Pooja and director Mahesh Bhatt dropped during the shoot of Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin.
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Since those early days, Naturals has come a long way now. The ice cream chain was said to be doing business of over Rs 300 crore a couple of years ago. In the last season of Shark Tank India, where many budding ice-cream businesses pitched their brand, they shared that they saw Naturals as their competition.