About the Book

THE TRUE STORY OF HOW AN ORDINARY INDIVIDUAL WORKED HIS WAY UP TO BECOME A REMARKABLE BUSINESS SUCCESS.
Vaman Shridhar Apte arrived in Bombay at the end of the nineteenth century, and began his career as an assistant to a textile merchant in Mulji Jetha Market. Within a few decades, he had risen to become one of the wealthiest men in the city, residing in a sea-facing mansion on a sprawling estate on the posh Peddar Road. Known to all as Tatyasaheb, Apte hailed from an orthodox Kokanastha Brahmin family-an unlikely background for someone who would find such remarkable success in the world of business.
Tatyasaheb: The Story of a Bombay Entrepreneur presents the life and times of Tatyasaheb (1875-1952). It charts his life from his origins in Girgaon, where he lived in the cramped quarters of Khatryachi Chawl, to his rising fortunes in the Gujarati bastion of MJ Market as the sole selling agent for Kohinoor Mills textiles. It traces his tumultuous relationship with Dadasaheb Phalke during his unexpected career as a silent film producer, when he produced over a hundred feature films, and his further success as a leading industrialist with the founding of the Phaltan Sugar Works.
Through it all, Tatyasaheb's immense grit, determination and his knack for being part of three key sunrise industries of the Bombay Presidency-textile, film and sugar-are a testament to his keen business sense and stature as one of the business pioneers of Bombay.
This book is also the story of Tatyasaheb's family-a journey through the social customs and daily rituals of a way of life that has passed into history. No less is it the story of how Bombay became a wealth-generating dynamo by nurturing and, in turn, being enriched by the risk-takers and entrepreneurs who made the city into the business hub of today.

About the Author

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm is an award-winning writer from Mumbai. The Secret of More, her first novel, won the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year (Fiction) Award 2023. It also won a Book-to-Box-Office Award at the NFDC Film Bazaar 2023. It was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature, the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Prize and the Tagore Literary Prize.
Tejaswini's short story collection, These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape, was shortlisted in 2017 for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in various publications including Helter Skelter, The Hindu BusinessLine, Mint Lounge, Indian Express and Himal Southasian, and two anthologies of Bombay short stories: Maya Nagari (2024) and The Only City (2025).
She worked as a film journalist and environmental researcher, and has written for Screen, Hindustan Times, the Times of India and the Asian Age. She has co- authored an environmental education book for children, The Poop Book!, nominated for the Jarul Book Award 2021-22, and translated into Tibetan and Kannada. She studied in Singapore and the UK, and has lived in Serbia, Israel, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Fiji and Azerbaijan. She currently lives in Germany.