Sheetal Mafatlal is an Indian businesswoman. She is a renowned socialite and social media influencer. She came into the limelight on 8 September 2022 when her husband, Atulya Mafatlal, a famous Indian industrialist, died in sleep.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Sheetal Atulya Mafatlal was born Sheetal Manhar Bhagat on Thursday, 31 July 1969 (age 53 Years; as of 2022) in Mumbai, India. Her zodiac sign is Leo. She completed her school education at Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School, Mumbai. Later she attended Harvard University, Boston to complete degress in finance and law.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 7″
Weight (approx.): 55 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Body Measurements (approx.): 36 – 24 – 36
Family
Parents & Siblings
Her father’s name is Manhar Bhagat, and he was a businessman and the head of the Nirlon empire. Her mother’s name is Rajani Bhagat, and she belongs to a wealthy family of jewellers from Gujarat.
Sheetal Mafatlal’s mother, Rajani Bhagat
She has a sister named Poonam Bhagat.
Poonam Bhagat, sister of Sheetal Mafatlal
Poonam Bhagat is married to the owner of the 2000-cr United Phosphorus company, Jaidev Shroff.
Husband & Children
Sheetal Mafatlal got married to a renowned Indian businessman Atulya Mafatlal on 25 February 2000 at Hotel President’s Casa Mexicana. Atulya Mafatlal died on 8 September 2022.
Sheetal Mafatlal with her husband
Sheetal on his wedding day
Sheetal is Atulaya’s second wife, and they had no children.
Relationships/Affairs
She was in a relationship with Atulya Mafatlal before getting married to him in 2000.
Career
Sheetal Mafatlal was working in her father’s business before getting married to Atulya Mafatlal in 2000. She rose to prominence after five years of her marriage and became a high-flying luxury retailer in India. She introduced the first-ever Valentino store in India during this time.
Sheetal Mafatlal while endorsing a dress of Valentino
Later, this earned her the title of ‘India’s Fashion Retail Pioneer’ and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
Sheetal Mafatlal in a magazine named YOU & I
Sheetal Mafatlal was then appointed as the President of Mafatal Luxury. Thereafter, she started working as the ‘Managing Director’ of the ‘Mafatlal Interiors & Kitchen’ organisation in 2003 and worked in the position till January 2005. In the same organisation, she was given the additional responsibility to head the Mafatlal Home Products Ltd. During this period, she introduced Corian to India. Sheetal Mafatlal is the founder of the ‘Mafatlal Luxury,’ which she established in January 2004. This is an international luxury brand consultancy venture.
Controversies
Love Triangle
Reportedly, Sheetal and Atulaya started liking each other when Poonam Bhagat was already engaged to Atulya Mafatlal. Their family relationships ended after this incident, but, once, in an interview with a media reporter, Sheetal rejected all these statements and called them mere rumours. Sheetal said that these rumours were plotted by her sister-in-law to malign her.
Detained by the Customs Department
In 2009, the customs department detained Sheetal Mafatlal at the Mumbai airport when she was carrying undeclared jewellery worth rupees 53 lakh into the country and was not able to disclose the proof of the same. She spent a night in jail for the same case.
The Mystery Of The Fake Paintings
In 2012, three friends of Sheetal Mafatlal were detained by the Mumbai police for replacing twelve ‘Mafatlalowned paintings’ worth rupees crores with fake ones in their Bandra apartment. The names of the accused were Areef Patel, Farukh Wadia, and Yasmin MY. In the case of the fake paintings, Sheetal accused her childhood friend Areef Patel of changing the original paintings with the fake ones, which were kept by her in Areef Patel’s Bandra and Khar apartments. She lodged the complaint against Areef Patel at the Gamdevi police station and also named Yasmin and Farukh Wadia who were the employees of Areef Patel. In 2014, these three accused gave a statement against Sheetal Mafatlal during an event ‘Sheetal Atulya Mafatlal And The Mystery Of The Fake Paintings’ in the presence of several media houses that the fraud of fake paintings was actually executed by Sheetal. This led the police to chase her whereabouts, but soon, she was declared absconding. She ran out of India and was seen attending a high-profile charity function in Kuwait in May 2014. In 2019, the Bombay High Court fined Sheetal with rupees seven lakh for filing a bogus case against her three friends in 2012. The HC said,
This gist gives the entire picture how the duplicate paintings were prepared and replaced and the original paintings were kept under the command of Sheetal Mafatlal.”
A newspaper article featuring the allegations and cases against Sheetal in the Fake Painting Case
Battle Against her Own Mother for 38, Pali Hill, Bandra
In 2016, Sheetal Mafatlal and her mother, Rajani Bhagat, fought a legal battle against each other for a bungalow in Bandra. In a complaint filed by Sheetal in Bandra police station, it was mentioned by Sheetal that she and her sister had the right to live in their patriarchial bungalow after their marriage as they had spent their childhood in that bungalow. She added that when she went to live in that bungalow, her mother locked up her in a room, which was in a very unhygienic condition, and she was not offered food and water for days by the bouncers of her mother. Her lawyer M A Chandan told the court,
With all left over food being kept in the room itself, there are now many cockroaches and she is living in unhygienic conditions.”
During a court session, the advocate of Rajani Bhagat stated that Sheetal Mafatlal wanted to be the sole owner of the bungalow. The advocate said that Rajani spent her whole life in that bungalow, and Sheetal wanted to dispossess her own mother. Rajani Bhagat’s advocate said,
Sheetal wants to bypass the mother and claim sole tenancy right. Even as Rajani lived there all her life. No one realized she (Sheetal) will turn dishonest and will try to dispossess her own mother. If they knew, they would have done something about this.”
The bungalow number 38, Palli Hill, Mumbai
In 2016, Sheetal took forceful possession of the bungalow. During a court trial, she made a statement that she and her sister were equal partners in the bungalow as it was the place which was brought by her grandfather in the fifties, and their whole childhood memories were attached to the same place. Sheetal said,
I was born and brought up here. I am an owner. And when I’m the owner, I don’t need to ‘barge into’ the house. My grandfather acquired the property in the ‘50s and I have lived here all my life. My sister Poonam and I are equal owners. It’s been my haven all my life and I have happy childhood memories of the house.”
A Bitter Mother-Daughter Relationship
Reportedly, Rajani Bhagat did not like the nature of her both daughters. Once, Rajani went to lodge an FIR against Sheetal in a local police station in Bandra, and she was spotted by a crime reporter at that time. In a statement recorded by the crime reporter, Rajani Bhagat was heard saying that her both daughters were useless. Rajani said,
Meri dono betiyan nikambi hain (both my daughters are useless).
Sheetal Mafatlal and her mother
Favourites
- Movie: Gone with the Wind (1939)
- Holiday destination: The French Riviera and the Swiss Alps
- Quote: “What Karl Lagerfeld famously once said: ‘Sweatpants are a sign of defeat… You lost control of your life, so you bought sweatpants.’ So appropriate in today’s global pandemic crisis.”
- Songs: To work out: Dua Lipa’s ‘Physical’ gets my day started and to chill out: The new 007 theme song – ‘No time to Die’ by Billie Eilish
Facts/Trivia
- In 2001, when Rajani Bhagat, mother of Sheetal Mafatlal, was the owner of the Bombay Garage petrol pump in Ahmedabad, she was accused by an IPS officer turned politician under a black marketing act for mixing some solvents in petrol. Then, the names of Sheetal’s parents were underlined by some noted media houses. Meanwhile, Rajani Bhagat was popular in police’s FIR books for filing complaints against her guests, whom she invited for dinner, for stealing luxurious items from her house.
- In 2007, a renowned Indian magazine ranked Sheetal Mafatlal among India’s top 100 hot entrepreneurs.
- Sheetal Mafatlal is associated with the Akshaya Patra Foundation as a volunteer for its promotion and awareness since 2016.
- In 2018, the famous Indian fashion designer Manish Malhotra invited socialite Sheetal Mafatlal to showcase his clothing collection as a showstopper at a fashion show in Mumbai.
Sheetal Mafatlal posing with Manish Malhotra at a fashion show event in Mumbai in 2018
- Once, in a media conversation, a childhood friend of Sheetal Mafatlal and her sister talked about the nature of both sisters. This childhood friend narrated that both sisters did not hesitate to out-fight anybody and had an appetite for court cases. She said,
Normal people get dented by bad press, court cases. Not these sisters. I’ve known them since I was a kid, and these girls can out-fight anybody.”
- Sheetal Mafatlal often enjoys drinking alcoholic beverages.
- Once, in an interview with a media reporter, she disclosed that the high time of her life was when she had a dinner at Buckingham Palace with Prince Charles and a dinner with UK Prime Minister Theresa May. In the same discussion, she narrated that she was addicted to Diet Coke and wanted to stay away from it. She said that she liked her red feather trimmed la Perla dressing gown so much that she had repeated it many times. She adored wearing her Versace lehenga, and her Piano ring, which was the ring of the 1950’s pianist Liberace. She mentioned that she was a technology person and this one thing nobody knew about her. She said,
That I am technologically challenged, I play the piano and I’m an expert in flower arrangements.”
Sheetal with UK Prime Minister Theresa May
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Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn