Ramesh Babu is a Bangalore-based barber who gives customers a haircut for a modest Rs. 100 but owns a Rolls Royce Ghost worth Rs. 3 crore, and 67 other cars. “Somehow, things have clicked for me,” says Babu, whose clients include politicians, police officers and film stars such as Salman
Khan, Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
With a film on his life — expected to be released in three languages — in the pipeline, his Bollywood contacts may come in handy.
Babu was nine when his father died in 1979, leaving the family with nothing. To make ends meet, they rented out his father’s saloon on Brigade Road for a mere Rs. 5 per day. Forced to get a fulltime job, Babu dropped out of school after Class 10 and started working as a barber.
The career choice paid off better than he could have imagined.
In 1991, he started his own salon, Inner Space, which gained popularity among the city’s trendy bunch. But the turnaround happened in 1994, when Babu purchased a humble Maruti Omni van and started renting it out.
Seventeen years later, his car collection is anything but humble. Apart from the Rolls Royce, his fleet includes four Mercedes, an equal number of BMWs and 50 Toyota Innovas — which he rents out. Renting the Rolls Royce for a day will set you back by Rs. 50,000.
