The face and owner of Indian spice brand MDH, the Masala King, Dharampal Gulati, passed away on Thursday at 5.30 am. He was 98.
He was also called the grand old man of spices.
According to reports, Dharmpal Gulati had been admitted in a hospital in Delhi for weeks and suffered a cardiac arrest early this morning.
MDH spices commercials/ads used to feature Mr Gulati.
In 2019, he was bestowed with the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award.
Condolences started pouring in.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia were among the first to condole his loss, they took to Twitter to pay their tribute to the great personality.
"Dharm Pal Ji was very inspiring personality. He dedicated his life to society. God bless his soul," Mr Kejriwal tweeted.
Mr Sisodia tweeted, "India's most inspiring entrepreneur, MDH owner Dharm Pal Mahashay passed away this morning. I have never met such an inspiring and lively soul. May his soul rest in peace.”
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh too expressed his grief for this great loss.
Dharmpal Gulati - an inspiration.
Fondly called 'dalaji' and 'Mahashayji', was born in 1923, in Pakistan's Sialkot. A fifth-grade school dropout, he joined his father Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati's spice business early days.
Mr Gulati established a business with his father’s support in 1937 and initially sold mirrors, soap, hardware and rice, and this business was a failure. He then returned to work with his father for the company Mahashian Di Hatti and they were popular amongst the people as "Deggi Mirch Wale".
After the India-Pakistan partition of 1947, they stayed at a refugees camp in Amritsar. Later shifted to Delhi’s Karol Bagh with 1,500 rupees to his name where he opened a store and in 1959 launched the iconic brand MDH Masala.
The company did not do well in India only but Gulati became a distributor and exporter as well. His company exports Indian spices to various parts of the world, including the UK, Europe, UAE, Canda, etc.
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The brand today sells 62 products available in over 150 different packages.
At the age of 94, Mr Gulati became the highest-paid CEO in India, in 2017. He was a philanthropist and had built many hospitals and schools.