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Hyderabad Votes – Favourite of Hyderabadis (2006)
Click on the links below for 2006
Results of respective categories
Primetime Prism conducted a survey to take
the opinion of the people, on what was their favourite in
Hyderabad, in certain selected categories. Here are the results
of the survey, which have been compiled into a feature by
Ushasri Ummadi and our editorial desk.
The city is changing face…
and how!!! Everytime somebody comes down from outside, they
exclaim, saying “Wow, Hyderabad’s happening!”
Happening it is… in all the areas and not just IT. Even
though IT is what got the world’s attention to this
erstwhile Nizam’s land, there are a lot of other things
that make it happening.
So, what are the happening places in this happening city?!
What better way to find out than a survey? Hyderabadis, die-hard
fans or otherwise, visitors and the recent Hyderbadis (for
the people who shifted to Hyderabad to work in IT firms) and
a whole lot more of people out there took this survey, and
here are the results. The survey covers a series of aspects
to catch the pulse of the city. Check out what the city has
chosen the ’favourite’ to be at, shop at and just
plain laze at.
Favourite
star hotel: ITC Hotel Kakatiya Sheraton & Towers |
The cultural
city of Hyderabad is dotted with a variety of hotels.
Amongst the many star categorized hotels in Hyderabad
are the 5 Star Deluxe hotels, 5 Star Hotels, 4 Star
Hotels and the 3 Star Hotels. Most of the hotels in
Hyderabad are part of leading hotels chains like the
Taj Hotels and Resorts, Welcomgroup group of hotels,
Choice group of hotels, Best Western group of hotels,
and the soon to come Radisson and Marriott.
The ITC Hotel Kakatiya Sheraton and Towers wins over
the other star hotels in the city, in this category.
ITC Hotel Kakatiya Sheraton and Towers, is one of the
finest hotels in Hyderabad and is located in the commercial
hub of the city, in Begumpet. An official of ITC Kakatiya
says, one of the key USP’s of the hotel are its
architecture, which have a local flavor in all its properties
across the country. “The cuisine that we provide
is also the best, whether it is at Peshawari or Dakshin,
and we are specially known for our Indian cuisine. We
go out of our way to serve people and are very warm
when it comes to hospitality”, says the official,
adding that the hotel has also won many awards in areas
of environment, safety and security. “Our hotel
is the only one that has a ladies floor”, he adds.
“Years of marketing and initiative measures that
we have taken, have made us what we are today. We taken
it as a challenge”, he says when asked about the
stiff competition in the market, ‘to be a market
leader’. |
Favourite
restaurant: Ohri’s |
When it comes
to eating out, Hyderabad has seen a sea change - be
it the number of new restaurants opening up or the new
cuisines that have found a place in the city’s
menu cards. Eating out is big business today and restaurants
have gone beyond just being places to stop by and take
a bite. You have all types of concept restaurants, speciality
restaurants and new cuisines that are tickling the tastebuds
of the erstwhile conservative Hyderabadi.
Ohri’s is a winner in this category. This name
that is popular today, has spread out to reach many
places in the city. Starting from Hotel Baseraa, that
has been one of Secunderabad’s landmarks, today
this group has hotels and restaurants across the city.
The group has other hotels at Basheerbagh and Banjara
Hills and restaurants at Basheerbagh, Banjara Hills,
in Prasad’s Imax, in Hyderabad Central and at
Rajbhavan Road. Ohri’s is known for its tasty
food at affordable prices, restaurants with speciality
cuisines and also takes the credit for popularising
the concept of ‘combos’. People love it
for its pan city presence, knowing that they are assured
of the Ohri’s quality whichever of their outlets
they drop in.
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Favourite
Biryani joint: Paradise Persis |
If there is
anything else that is as famous as the Charminar itself,
then it is the Hyderabadi Biryani. There is no other
complete one dish meal like the Hyderabadi Biryani.
Rich in Taste, filling in quantity, variety of options
and light on the pocket. Hyderabadi Biryani is popularly
known as the ‘dum’ Biryani, a name it derives
from its style of cooking. The meat is marinated for
a long time in curd and a variety of spices. Then it
is interlayered with rice and cooked on dum. Making
the Biryani is an art in itself, as the right quality
& proportion of ingredients, the correct type of
cooking dish and the time of marination & cooking,
go a long way in making the perfect Biryani. As the
famous Hyderabadi saying goes, food is best created
with fursat (time) and mohabbat (love), you will rarely
find a Biryani carelessly overcooked to a sticky mush
or left too dry. It would not be wrong to say that the
Hyderabadi Biryani is addictive.
Everyone in Hyderabad has his own favorites when it
comes to picking a restaurant that serves the best biriyani.
Paradise Persis wins hands down in this category. Paradise
Persis is an entity by itself as far as the city is
concerned. People vouch for the Biryani of this place.
Paradise Persis underwent a big change a few years back
and the place has shed its irani outlet look to emerge
as a classy restaurant still serving the best of Biryanis.
The place is as popular for its take-aways as it is
for its dine-in.
|
Favourite
pub or bar: Bottles & Chimneys |
Pub culture
in the city is no more only about drinking alone. In
its new avatar, they play host to DJ nights, product
launches, theme nights and whatever you could possibly
think of. Pubs also happen to be the new platform for
fashion shows and the mushrooming pub culture has not
only provided an incentive to this new concept but also
so-called infrastructure as well. For pubs such events
are crowd pullers. Since live bands are banned in pubs,
they need something else to keep the interest going.
Unless you have something happening, pubs will die.
“How long can people sit and drink, we need to
have something happening,” says an owner of a
pub in the twin cities.
Bottles & Chimneys, B&C, as it is most popularly
known, is the most favourite pub in the twin cities
according to our survey. What is it about B&C that
people like so much that they can’t do without?!
According to Shiak Mohib of B&C - it’s the
ambience and the atmosphere, and of course the music
they play, which is why it is the ‘favourite in
the city’. It’s a big pub, a two-storeyed
one at that, which can accommodate 400 people at once.
“We get celebrity DJ’s, models and actors
for the events that we have, which explains why people
like it so much. We plan new events always so that the
crowds continue to come to us,” says Mohib adding
that they maintain their best at all times. Also catering
to the ladies in town, they have an exclusive ‘Ladies
Night’ on Thursdays. Stressing on how important
the customer is to them, Mohib said that customer feedback
is taken, to better their service.
|
Favourite
movie theatre: Prasad’s IMAX |
Hyderabadis
love movies and the number of theatres in the city,
speak themselves about this craze of the people. With
the advent of new age theatres, the movie experience
has drastically changed. Importance is given to the
technical details like the best in sound and projection,
as well as comfort in terms of seating and leg space
of the viewer. The Prasad’s IMAX is the clear
winner here.
This Prasad’s IMAX multiplex is located on the
banks of Hussain Sagar lake in the heart of Hyderabad.
This IMAX multiplex is a part of Buddha Purnima project
area, which is an initiative of the State Tourism. With
this, Prasad’s IMAX joins the big league of 225
IMAX theatres that are spread across 30 countries. The
Prasad’s IMAX (Eyemax - Maximum view for eye)
theatre facility houses South India’s first IMAX
theatre. IMAX, a brand that is recognized worldwide
for high quality entertainment, is the most vivid and
immersive film experience available. The Prasad’s
IMAX theatre features world’s most powerful projector
that beams on 29 meters wide and 21.93 meters high screen.
It also has a six channel sound system that puts across
12,000 watts of digital surround sound. There are 44
custom designed speakers equipped at strategic places
in the theatre to give the complete digital experience.
The Prasad’s IMAX theatre has a seating capacity
of 635 and every seat in this theatre is considered
the best seat.
The Prasad’s multiplex and entertainment center
also sports five 70 mm screens along with the IMAX screen.
Out of these five screens, four are being used for public
exhibition and one screen is reserved for private shows.
Along with the screens, Prasad’s also has food
courts and shopping malls that are spread over three
floors of approximately 70,000 sq feet. The entire multiplex
is a centrally air-conditioned one. Kishan, Marketing
Head, says “We are expanding to better ourselves
as the best entertainment center. We have a first of
its kind Mirror Maze in India, the theme being ‘Space
Adventure’. It will be open to the public in mid-July.
We are also getting the McDonald’s outlet to Hyderabad
in our complex, and this will be open in the second
week of July.” With a lot to offer now, the crowds
only seem to be growing bigger for Prasad’s.
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Favourite
shopping mall: Hyderabad Central |
Experts comment that the organized
retailing in India is big business. Opportunity and
the segment is doubling itself every year. The growth
of shopping malls in various cities is giving rise
to organized retailing, which so far was in the hands
of small stores. A study in the top 15 cities of India
has revealed a tremendous business potential in the
organised retailing sector. According to a survey
conducted, the growth of retail outlets in India is
unbelievable. The number of retail businesses grew
by 26% in the 5 years period from 1996 to 2001. Experts
believe that the boom after that has been shockingly
bigger.
When it comes to shopping malls, the people of Hyderbad
have voted Hyderabad Central as their favourite. Though
it was the last entrant in the list of mega shopping
malls, Hyderabad Central has made a mark for itself.
People love it for its vastness, the choice and variety
and the layout of the store. This family super store
has just about everything - clothes, footwear, accessories,
electronics, mobiles, toys, books, music… and
the list goes on. The food bazaar, food courts and
the movie theatres add up to make this a perfect shopping
and leisure destination.
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Favourite
jewellery store: Tanishq |
When it comes
to jewellery, it always used to be a traditional kind
of business. Most families used to have a family jeweller
and the jewellery used to be limited to what was available
there. The scenario has completely changed now. Today
apart from some traditional jewellers who have grown
into big names, you have big corporates who have completely
changed the jewellery business in India. Hyderabad already
boasts of many big names in the jewellery business and
the list is growing by the day.
Tanishq, from the house of Tata, is the chosen one in
this category of the ‘favourite jewellery store’,
and it too celebrates its 10th anniversary in July.
What you have now was not available earlier, especially
when it comes to the array of readymade jewellery options,
which are easy on the pockets too. It started with Tanishq,
coming out with lightweight jewellery, and soon enough,
there followed a slew of brands touting exclusivity
in one or the other aspect of jewellery. With subtle
designs and colours that come with an ethnic touch and
a western feel, the new range of jewellery is chic.
“Being a Tata product itself holds a lot of weightage
and speaks for itself”, says Shanmuga Sundaram,
Marketing Head of Tanishq in Hyderabad, adding that
the quality, design and innovative initiatives are truly
a ‘value for its money’. Being a corporate
product with a national identity, it also helps you
if you want to buy something in Hyderabad and want to
exchange it in Chennai or any other place in India.
Tanishq also specialises in designing jewellery for
specific occasions and purposes, like it did for the
movie Paheli. With a range so unique, designs so enthralling
and jewellery shopping so pleasureable, it is no wonder
that Tanishq is on the top.
|
Favourite
supermarket: Spencer’s |
According
to a study on food and grocery retail market by KSA
Technopak, food retail sales make up for close to 63
per cent of total retail sales. The report said that
the food and grocery sector now accounts for 14 per
cent of total organised retail, after clothing and textiles
(at 36 per cent) and watches and jewellery (at 17 per
cent). Industry experts, however, say that soon food
retailing will overtake both the categories since food
accounts for around 50 per cent of a typical household’s
income. According to a McKinsey report, the share of
an Indian household’s spending on food is one
of the highest in the world at around 48% of income.
The organized retail food and grocery sector constitutes
the largest opportunity for growth. Urbanization, working
spouses, increasing household disposable incomes and
convenience of one stop shop with good ambience are
driving the growth of retailing in India.
Spencer’s, the hypermart is the winner in this
category. This discount store has products priced below
the MRP. It is a single floor shop, which makes it easier
to shop for all. With ample free parking space, it does
not require for planning and strategy to get a parking
spot, like the other places in the city. “The
brand itself carries a lot of weightage and what we
have to offer is genuine, without any hidden clauses,”
says an official from Spencer’s. Apart from the
regular food products and groceries, they also have
the largest ready to fry, and ready food & beverage
products in its range. You can also buy vegetables as
per your requirement, even if it is 25 gms! “The
future is in customer service”, says the official,
adding that they will always strive for it and provide
customers with what they want.
|
Favourite
weekend outing spot: Nagarjuna Sagar |
With change
in lifestyles, increase in disposable income and mounting
work pressures, the people of Hyderabad have found out
a perfect way to relax - that of going for outings in
the weekend. Earlier there were limited options for
this, but now the options have increased. People also
have become adventurous and with many of them having
a 5 days working schedule in the week, weekends gives
plenty of time to relax, at a place of their choice.
Most of the people found Nagarjuna Sagar as the perfect
weekend outing spot. About 140 kms from Hyderabad, this
place makes for a great short holiday. With plenty of
accommodation available from the State tourism, an overnight
stay is also easily possible. There are a lot of places
to see here. The dam itself is an engineering marvel.
Then you have the Nagarjuna Konda which is accessible
only by boat. Archaeologically, Nagarjunakonda is considered
to be very important as nowhere else in the country
can one find such a vast expanse of Buddhist ruins -
a complete metropolis of a well developed civilization
that had continuous human habitation. The ruins are
visible today in the island-museum in their reconstructed
form based on what was salvaged from the riverbed. Closeby
to Nagarjuna Sagar is the charming Ethipothala waterfalls,
which is a good sightseeing spot. All in all, this is
a perfect place for a happy weekend.
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Landmark
of Hyderabad: Charminar |
Moving away
from the list of ‘favourites’, the last
question of the survey was a little different. We asked
the people - ‘What according to you is the landmark
of Hyderabad?’ This question was framed to know
the outlook of the people, and their perception of the
changing Hyderabad. And the results spoke for themselves,
as there were many surprising answers. Though the historic
Charminar topped this category as the ‘Landmark
of Hyderabad’, and the Hussain Sagar lake followed
it, the new-age Hitec city was in close competition.
This clearly shows how people’s perceptions are
different and what is the landmark that pops in their
minds, when they think of the Hyderabad city.
Known as ‘The Arc de triumph of the East’,
Charminar is a splendid piece of architecture and is
always on the top of the mind of any Hyderabadi. A proud
sentinel in the heart of the Old City, this magnificent
monument built by Quli Qutub Shah, is the unique symbol
of Hyderabad. To say that Charminar is a major landmark
in the city is to state the obvious, to repeat a cliché.
The great monument is a synonym for Hyderabad and the
pivot around which the glory and history of the city
have developed. The Charminar is as much the signature
of Hyderabad as the Taj Mahal is of Agra and Eifel Tower
is of Paris.
All said and done, whatever is the ‘favourite’
of the people, the city of Hyderabad has its own magic
and it is this magic that keeps it alive!
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