A GROWING AMBITION

He didn’t mean to develop Taj Madikeri Resort & Spa. Pramod Ranjan had relocated back home to India from Australia, and with an inherent passion for creating, he started buying rural land to build himself a weekend house. His ambitions grew. Why not build a hotel with between 50 and 100 rooms?

TREK TO TREASURE

Several land purchases later, he found this spot near Madikeri in the ancient Kingdom of Coorg, Karnataka State. A surmountable challenge was that the site required a six-mile rainforest trek to reach. Undeterred, he bought 180 acres, put in a tarmac road, and built 63 villas; the smallest size was 750sq ft. Local hardwood, all-wall windows, working log fires. He has no architectural background, but his mother is an interior designer. 

SERENITY SIMPLY SINGS

From the 2012 opening of Taj Madikeri Resort & Spa, the Ranjan timing has been spot on. Influencers and word of mouth spread the name, and the pandemic ignited a hunger for nature and space. It’s one of Conde Nast Traveller’s five 2024 India Gold Listers – ‘the serenity simply sings’. Continual boosts also come from the likes of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who loved the resort so much they doubled their length of stay.

AN IMPULSE SENSATIONALIST 

Every visiting celeb seems to rever the place as well as its owner-designer - seen on the lobby terrace, cantilevered 100 feet above verdant greenery. He’s an impulse sensationalist. He’s added ziplining, a coffee plantation, a butterfly farm, and a frog pond with 32 species. There’s already serious curated trekking and golf, but why not cricket?

LETS TALK WINE

Food, India’s gourmet to global, relies 99% on home-grown produce. And now the entrepreneur whose horizons grow nonstop talks wine. And gin.