Life has come almost full circle for Abdulla Ajmal, who believes that when it comes to making lifestyle choices, the new age India is ready for their label’s “homecoming”.
Abdulla, Consulting Perfumer India for perfume brand Ajmal, which is a leading name in the fragrance industry in the UAE since 1976, says besides content, modern Indians want to bottle up the experiences as well.
“Nostalgia for some is marketing tool. For us it is truly an essence and an emotion that has been there. For us, when we say it’s homecoming not only because we have done all the nine yards. I’ve lived all over the world, studied and exposed to biggest and best in the world.
“We feel the need to come back as now India has the time, the opportunity and the appetite. The taste is going to grow, the young population is going to ask for things which are lifestyle related. The question now is ‘How do I make myself more presentable?’, not ‘how I look but how people perceive me?’” Abdulla told PTI in an interview here.
The man, who is the first of third generation of his brood to join the family business, says India has its own peculiarities.
“Due to the diversity in our population, the adage of ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t work here. In my travels, I found north Indians detest the smell of jasmine but the flower is lapped up in the south. Our woody and heady perfumes sell the best in Punjab.”
Abdulla says besides commercialisation, the idea of penetrating Indian market stems from the fact that fragrance industry is currently in its nascent stage but it promises to grow at a faster rate.
The origins of brand Ajmal can be traced in Hojai, a village situated at 165km from Guwahati in Assam, where Abdulla’s grandfather Haji Ajmal Ali hailed from.
He says his grandfather – whose name serves as the brand name – was primarily a farmer who grew up with a commodity called ‘oudh’ in the backyard.