I’m sitting in a newly opened neighbourhood bar in Greater Kailash Market, drafting my notes for a piece on the F&B maverick and MD of Bright Hospitality, Rajan Sethi—the driving force behind it all. From cafes to cocktail bars, from global cuisine to fully organic vegan dining—Sethi has crafted it all under his hospitality brand over the years; two decades to be precise.
Where I’m sitting is the newest addition to his brand profile— Top Banana. Perched a floor above Yeti, the bar, which calls itself “unseriously serious,” welcomes you with heavy red velvet curtains that frame a flight of raw, cemented, rough-edged stairs.
Around me, the team moves with quiet precision: cutlery is aligned, curtains are adjusted for a perfect fall, floors swept, and the kitchen hums softly with the clang of pans and the language of chefs.
Amidst the clinging of glasses and bottles at the bar 4 steps away from my seat, Rajan Sethi arrives, greeting me with a warm, easy smile. As I prepare to jump into getting to know his journey, I learn that that’s not an easy task. He pauses, a fleeting look of amusement crossing his face. For a man so well-established in the food and hospitality industry, for him, choosing one chapter to define this answer feels almost unfair—it’s impossible to condense a career built on passion, vision, and relentless experimentation into a single narrative.
Today, under Sethi’s leadership, Bright Hospitality houses nine brands like Ikk Panjab, OMO, AMPM, Espressos Anyday and more—each distinctly different from another and unique to the Indian masses.
Entering the hospitality space was never part of Sethi’s original plan—in fact, he once aspired to be a rally driver.
It was during his MBA in Australia in late 1990’s and early 2000’s that his perspective began to shift. The experience exposed him to global consumer behaviour and evolving food philosophies, allowing him to draw comparisons with the Indian market and finding a gap.
“I was an accountant and worked at KPMG at one point in my life,” he casually shares, in an attempt to deviate from his serious and professional perception on this particular day and moment. He glanced at Tashi (Marketing Head) from his team, seated beside us.
“Did you know?”
Tashi raises an eyebrow and shakes her head.
In 2007 when we launched Bright Hospitality, he began with the grill and bar deck, a dining hall in Connaught Place that served thousands of corporate diners and travellers. Then came G.T Road that celebrated the love for kebabs, tikkas, curries, and more. And so on the expansion of Sethi’s venture paved the way for even more impressive brands.
“Everything is very fast-paced. India, especially its youth, doesn’t want to be left behind in any aspect—they want to experience what the world is experiencing,” he adds.
On being asked where he’s borrowing inspiration from, he says firmly and without hesitation, “nowhere,” his tone almost cold in its certainty.
He’s convinced his brands will work precisely because they haven’t been done before in India.
To illustrate, he offers a rather striking example—placing a market like Gurugram, with its well-known love for indulgent drinking and chakhna, alongside a concept like OMO, built entirely around an organic, sustainable, vegan philosophy.
It’s the kind of contrast that makes you question. If you’ve ever met a true Gurugram regular, you know the preference leans heavily towards bold, spicy flavours, generous pours, and smoky meats. And yet, Sethi finds a way to make even the most unlikely ideas land.
He describes himself as inherently restless, with a mind that constantly drifts toward what more he can contribute to the F&B space. Easily bored, he has little interest in scaling a single idea through endless franchises—repetition, for him, rarely feels like progress.
What drives Sethi instead is a clear, persistent urge to keep building something new. He often finds himself dreaming up fresh ideas and concepts, unable to switch off that creative instinct. Alongside his partner and wife, Deepika—who matches both his pace and ambition—the two are almost always in motion, already looking ahead to the next possibility.
“By the time we’ve launched a new brand and allowed ourselves a brief moment to pause, we’re already reflecting on what we could have done better,” he says. “A lot of our time goes into learning, evolving, and pushing ourselves to grow.”
While failure can feel daunting—especially when you’ve put a piece of yourself on the line—Sethi doesn’t seem to fear it. Even when one of his ventures, a concept offering over 300 dishes across multiple cuisines, failed to deliver on profits, he speaks about it with striking candour.
“Have I failed? Yes. Would I do it all over again for the learning? Absolutely,” he says.
With nine brands under his umbrella, there’s one that sits especially close to Sethi’s heart—rooted in memory and identity. When he opened Ikk Panjab in 2025, it aimed to reshape how Punjabi cuisine is perceived today.`
With roots tracing back to Peshawar, in the Punjab that now lies in Pakistan, Sethi grew up immersed in the culture of an undivided Punjab. Ikk Panjab is his homage to that shared legacy—its food, flavours, and spirit. He even admits, with a hint of mischief, that some of the best bits of Punjab remained across the border—something he attempts to bring back through his menu.
Among his most cherished food memories is Mathi Chole. He fondly recalls his grandmother’s hidden stash of mathi in her almirah, served with chole—a dish that now features across all Ikk Panjab outlets, carrying forward a piece of his past.
No interview is complete without the inevitable question—what’s next? And Sethi has faced it time and again, whether it was after opening Ikk Panjab, OMO, or Anyday.
As we sit in his newest venture, Top Banana, even before it has welcomed its first 20 guests, it’s clear his mind is already elsewhere. The churn of ideas never really stops for him—but the ones that take shape are always worth watching. This time, he hints at a new speakeasy on the horizon—Martini’s Every Night, set to open its doors next month.
As I begin to wrap up, I turn to Tashi with a question Sethi had neatly sidestepped earlier: “Who is Rajan Sethi?”
Tashi finds herself under constant dilemma whether to answer as representative of the brand or a figure who’s been around with Sethi for years, beyond just work.
“He’s the coolest of them all. Almost like a cool dad.” They laugh.
Then, almost as an afterthought, she asks, “Do you know what Top Banana means?”
“It means top boss as a slang. And this space is all for him, the man he is.”
