Bitter battle over Rohit Bal’s legacy: War over his will and a courtroom showdown for his empire

The passing of fashion designer Rohit Bal has brought up a couple of unexpected questions: one, who will inherit his fortune? And two, what will be the future of his designer brand? While the decision of the inheritance is left for the Delhi High Court to decide, the way forward for the brand, again linked to the inheritance, remains somewhat unclear.

Rohit Bal, one of India’s most well-known couturiers, passed away on November 1, 2024, at the age of 63 after a cardiac arrest.

For long, the question of the survival of a brand in the event of a fashion designer getting incapacitated or passing away has been uncertain in India. The reason for this is that not many fashion designers have been able to put in place a succession plan where the future of the label is secured after their time is over.

When in the early 1990s, iconic fashion designer Rohit Khosla passed away, there was no one to take his brand forward and, subsequently, his eponymous label slowly faded away. Even in recent years, after Goa-based designer Wendell Rodricks’ untimely demise in 2020, the future of his brand remained uncertain, even though he had a creative director leading the design part of the brand at the time of his death. And the question of the continuity of the brand is unclear even today.

In the West, where the luxury fashion industry is established and well-rooted, conglomerates have acquired brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi (all acquired by LVMH), Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, and Balenciaga (Kering), to mention a few. And these conglomerates have transformed these brands into multi-million-dollar ones, with hundreds of stores around the world. Corporate backing, thus, plays a crucial role in the continuity of a luxury fashion brand.

Perhaps sensing this, some Indian designers such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Tarun Tahiliani, Shantanu and Nikhil Mehra, and Masaba Gupta, among others have sold stakes on their brands to Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL). Similarly, designers such as Manish Malhotra, Rahul Mishra, Anamika Khanna, and Ritu Kumar have decided to join hands with Reliance Brands Ltd. In fact, Mukherjee says that the very reason for him to sell a majority stake in his label to ABFRL was to ensure its continuity.

Let us come back to Rohit Bal. According to leading IPR firm Anand and Anand’s Senior Partner Safir Anand, the future of the brand depends on several factors. “Rohit Bal was such a creative genius and his IPR is with us. In order to ensure its successful future, whoever is going to lead the creative side must have the ability to match his sensibilities,” he says. “Now that the matter is with the court, it really depends on in whose hands the brand is going to land and what the person wants to do with the brand.” 

Sunil Sethi, chairman of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), feels that there is no cause for worry when it comes to the continuity of brand Rohit Bal if it is provided with the right elements for further growth. “Rohit Bal always created such classic pieces that his clients wore for many years. The design team he worked very closely with is still with the brand. They are well-versed with the design ethos and sensibilities of Rohit, and I am sure they are quite capable of taking the brand forward,” says Sethi. “Of course, then comes the business side. It is important for the brand to have corporate backing that can take the business forward successfully.”

According to Sethi, all these could happen only if either the ongoing dispute between the Bal family and the late fashion designer’s close friend Lalit Tehlan is amicably settled or the high court where the matter is lodged comes out with its final verdict on the inheritance. Bal had left his entire estate to Tehlan in his last will. 

“Whether this will is genuine or not… it’s not registered but only notarised, owing to which whether it will hold any value, etc. is for the court to decide,” says an industry insider, adding that talks were on to sell Bal’s jeans brand Alexander to a corporate, and the designer’s death has left them in limbo.

Sethi also clarifies that contrary to some reports pegging the value of Bal’s assets at Rs 18-20 crore, it should be much higher. “His house (in Delhi’s tony Defence Colony) alone will be worth much more than that,” says Sethi whose name appeared in the will as Bal’s choice of its executor. “All put together, it will be worth hundreds of crores. Rohit had an excellent taste for art, fashion and food and he had an impressive collection of paintings, artefacts, carpets and other collectable items,” he says, adding that since his name was mentioned in the will as the executor, he had tried his best to settle everything amicably by trying to make both parties sit across the table and discuss. “Since that didn’t quite succeed and the matter has now gone to the court, I have very little role to play in this now,” he says.

In the meantime, it has been alleged that the designer’s family removed items from Bal’s Defence Colony residence and changed the locks of the front door blocking Tehlan’s access to the property. “It is true that we’ve removed some paintings, carpets, etc. in order to repair the house. Walls and floors were damaged because of water seepage, and we’ve put everything back after the repair was done,” says a member of Bal’s family, requesting the person not be named. “We very much doubt the authenticity of the will and we are going to challenge it. While he was alive, he repeatedly told us he will never leave a will like this.”

In the coming days, one will possibly see an end to this uncertainty. “It can always be cited to the court that things such as salaries, stores, merchandise, etc. are stalled since the matter is with the court and there is always the option to make a request to expedite the case,” says Safir Anand of Anand and Anand. Depending on whose side the wind is going to blow, hopefully a decision will be made as to how and where brand Rohit Bal is going to head, not to mention the rest of his high-value assets.