Tamil Nadu’s role in bringing iconic Jawa motorcycles back to India

The enterprise is the labour of love of Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group; Anupam Thareja, Founder, Classic Legends and Founder and Managing Partner, Phi Capital; Boman Irani, Chairman & MD, Rustomjee Group and Ashish Joshi, CEO, Classic Legends.

Its long-term goal is to become a lifestyle firm and provide opportunities to consumers to relive the heritage of classic brands by co-creating exciting product and service offerings along with the motorcycling ecosystem. Jawa is a motorcycle brand from Czech Republic, erstwhile Czechslovakia, with a 90-year legacy, which in its heydays exported classic, well-engineered and rugged motorcycles to over 120 countries. It entered India in the early 1960’s.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group has a long-standing relationship with Tamil Nadu and Jawa so to speak. As a student of Lawrence School, in Lovedale, Ooty, his obsession with classic bikes found newfound depth. He says, “Guess who was the biggest ‘cat’ in Lovedale at that time. It wasn’t me as Mahindra was unknown as a brand at that time. It was a girl called Morvarid Irani. She was a nice looking girl too! Everybody on campus wanted to know who she was, because we knew she came from the Jawa family (her parents Farookh Irani and Sheila Irani were the owners of the Mysore factory that manufactured the Ideal Jawa bikes in India). If you wanted to go to the factory, you had to know Morvarid.” Years later when Mahindra connected with Boman Irani, the real estate magnate (not the actor), who is a scion of the Irani family, the cogs of the machinery started falling in place.

Mahindra’s Man Friday in the initiative is Anupam Thareja, whose initial meetings he describes as, “I first met Anupam in 1997. At that time, I thought he was the funkiest looking banker I had seen. Of course, he was incisive and a super sharp analyst of my tractor business and would never mince his words. After stints in Wall Street and Singapore, he came to Chennai to help revive the fortunes of Royal Enfield. When I asked him - a hardcore biker that he is, what should Mahindra be doing - he said Jawa.” In fact once during a flight with Pawan Goenka and John Abraham, when Mahindra asked Abraham about his take on Jawa, he said, “Enfield is like your skin, but Jawa is in your blood, yaar.”

Irani said, ‘It is a proud moment for me and my family that Jawa motorcycles is making a comeback. The brand was first introduced in the country by my father and went on to define an era that not just pervaded a motorcycle cult but also popular culture & cinema that got the nation together. We are certain Jawa will appeal to the seasoned motorcycles aficionados and the millennials alike.” Joshi remarked, “This seems like the right timing to have come up with this range of motorcycles, as the Indian premium motorcycle market is not only growing but also evolving in consumer tastes and preference.”