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The first Rolls-Royce showroom opened in India to woo the nation's growing band of rich entrepreneurs with the ultimate symbol of luxury and status.

Colin Kelly (L), regional director of Asia-Pacific Rolls-Royce motor cars
© AFP/File Prakash Singh

Rolls-Royce, once the car of choice of the maharajas during British colonial rule, has sold about 10 models in the past year with Indian buyers customising their purchases with woven family crests, officials said.

The Navnit Motors dealership said it hoped to grow and sell up to 30 cars a year from their showroom in the western economic city of Mumbai targeting entrepreneurs and industrialists.

The current offering, the Phantom, has a price tag of nearly one million dollars, said Navnit marketing director Sharad Kachalia, whose company sells cars, yachts and jets to India's wealthiest.

"Young entrepreneurs are making good money and this is where we see some looking for an ultimate statement," Kachalia told AFP. "To earn such an ornament in life is an achievement for anyone."

Before India's independence from British rule in 1947, the Rolls-Royce occupied pride of place in the royal garages of India's maharajas with a 50-strong fleet belonging to the Nizam of Hyderabad.

One of the company's best customers was the Maharaja of Mysore who always purchased his Rollers in sevens. His buying habits passed into company lore as "doing a Mysore".

At least 20,000 Rolls-Royces rolled off the production line before World War II with a fifth of them bound for India. Many included such touches as curtains to shield wives from prying eyes.

The 21st century buyers -- generally aged between 20 and 45 with the majority in Mumbai and involved in pharmaceuticals, construction and the media -- go for personal stamps on their cars, said Kachalia.

"Many ask for details like the family crest embroidered on the headrests, stitching on the leather seats and for their own name on the dashboard," he said.

Navnit Motors secured rights to sell the cars in India in April 2005 after a break of 50 years.

In its annual ranking of the world's richest people released in March, Forbes Magazine labelled India as the "rising star" in the firmament of the fabulously wealthy.

It said there were 23 Indian billionaires with a combined net worth of 99 billion dollars, an increase of 60 percent from the year before, on the back of the country's booming stock market.

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