Sheetal Mafatlal

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sheetal Mafatlal

• Sheetal Mafatlal is an Indian entrepreneur, socialite, and social media influencer. She is best known for being the wife of the late Indian Businessman Atulya Mafatlal who passes away in his sleep on 8 September 2022.

• Her father, Manhar Bhagat, was a respected businessman who was the head of the Nirlon empire. Her mother belonged to a wealthy family of jewellers from Gujarat. Her sister is married to Jaidev Shroff who is the owner of the 2000-cr United Phosphorus. In 2001, the names of Sheetal’s parents were highlighted when Rajani was booked under the black marketing act by an IPS officer turned politician who accused her of mixing some solvents in petrol when she was the owner of the Bombay Garage petrol pump in Ahmedabad. During the same time, Rajani Bhagat was also famous for filing complaints of theft against her guests whom she invited for dinner at her luxurious house.

• According to some media sources, initially, Poonam Bhagat got engaged to Atulya Mafatlal, but Sheetal and Atulaya started liking each other. This ended their family relationships. However, this information was rejected by Sheetal in a media interview, and she said that this was a rumour, which was plotted by her sister-in-law to defame her.

• Before marrying Atulaya Mafatlal in 2000, Sheetal Mafatlal was helping and working in her father’s business. After five years of her marriage, she become a high-flying luxury retailer in India and was credited for introducing the first ever Valentino store to India. Consequently, she was once featured in Time Magazine as India’s Fashion Retail Pioneer.

  

• She is the President of Mafatal Luxury. In 2003, she joined Mafatlal Interiors & Kitchen organisation as its Managing Director and served the position till January 2005. In this company, she was appointed as the head Mafatlal Home Products Ltd. During her tenure in this company, she was the first one to introduce Corian to India.

• In January 2004, Sheetal Mafatlal founded a venture named ‘Mafatlal Luxury,’ which is a luxury brand consultancy that works internationally.

• In 2007, Sheetal Mafatlal was ranked as one of India’s hot 100 entrepreneurs by a renowned Indian magazine.

  

• In 2009, Sheetal Mafatlal was caught by the customs department at the Mumbai airport for not disclosing and carrying undeclared jewellery worth rupees 53 lakh into the country. She was detained by the police in custody for one day. ^[7]NDTV

• In 2012, Areef Patel, Farukh Wadia, and Yasmin MY, the three old friends of Sheetal Mafatlal, were accused of turning twelve ‘Mafatlalowned paintings’ into fakes by replacing them with the original ones in a Bandra apartment. However, in 2014, the trio turned against Sheetal and organised an event titled ‘Sheetal Atulya Mafatlal And The Mystery Of The Fake Paintings’ and invited the press to disclose her painting fraud. Soon after she was exposed in the fraud case, the Mumbai police declared her absconded. No traces of her were found in India. In May 2014, Sheetal Mafatlal was spotted attending a high-profile charity event in Kuwait. According to the case of the fake paintings, Sheetal blamed her childhood friend Areef Patel for stealing paintings that were kept by her in Bandra and Khar. These apartments were owned by one of Patel’s friends. Sheetal Mafatlal filed a complaint at the Gamdevi police station against Areef Patel and accused him of replacing the original paintings with fake ones. In the same complaint, she mentioned the name of Yasmin who was the owner of the two apartments in which paintings were kept, and Farukh Wadia, an employee of Areef Patel. ^[8]The Economic Times In 2019, Sheetal Mafatlal was fined rupees seven lakh for filing a fake 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.” ^[9]The Times of India

  

• In 2016, Sheetal Mafatlal fought a legal battle against her mother for a bungalow in Bandra. Sheetal filed a complaint at a local police station in Bandra and stated that she was locked up in her bedroom at 38, Pali Hill, in Bandra, Mumbai by her mother’s bouncers. Sheetal Mafatlal’s lawyer stated in the courtroom that Sheetal was kept in unhygienic conditions and was not given food and water by 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.”

  On the other side, the advocate of Rajani Bhagat stated in the courtroom that Sheetal Mafatlal wanted the sole tenancy of the bungalow in which Sheetal, her mother, and sister were living after the death of Rajani’s father and husband a few years ago. 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.” ^[10]India Today

  

• Sheetal Mafatlal works as a volunteer with the Promotion and Awareness branch of the Akshaya Patra Foundation since January 2016.

• In 2018, Sheetal Mafatlal walked a ramp show and made a rare appearance in Mumbai for the famous Indian fashion designer Manish Malhotra.

  

• Once, Rajani Bhagat filed a complaint against Sheetal Mafatlal at Bandra police station and a crime reporter was present at the police station at that time. This crime reporter recorded the statement of Rajani Bhagat who was heard saying that her both daughters were useless. ^[11]Bangalore Mirror Rajani said,
  

  Meri dono betiyan nikambi hain (both my daughters are useless).”

  

• A childhood friend of the two sisters stated the nature of the sisters in a media interview. She said that Sheetal and Poonam had an appetite for legal battles. 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 likes enjoying alcoholic beverages occasionally. ^[12]Getty Images

• Once, in a  media conversation, she stated that a dinner at Buckingham Palace with Prince Charles and a dinner with UK Prime Minister Theresa May was the high point of her life. In the same conversation, she added that she wanted to get rid of from the addiction to Diet Coke. She disclosed that she had repeated her red feather trimmed la Perla dressing gown many times. She liked to wear her Versace lehenga, and her Piano ring, which was the ring of the 1950’s pianist Liberace. ^[13]Hindustan Times She said that one thing that nobody knew about her was,
  

  That I am technologically challenged, I play the piano and I’m an expert in flower arrangements.”