When Stranger's Tata Indica Praise Brought "Joy" To Ratan Tata: Niira Radia

A stranger's praise for Tata Indica car once brought "joy" to Ratan Tata's face, said Niira Radia, whose company managed public relations for the Tata Group from 2000 to 2012. The compliment came at a time when his company was dealing with a wave of consumer complaints around several product quality issues that cropped up immediately after the launch.

"This gentleman in Dubai came up to him (Ratan Tata) in a mall and said 'Sir, sir, I have an Indica. And he looked at me thinking someone is going to complain. But the gentleman looked at him and said, 'No, no, I love your car. It's lovely. I bought the car and I bought a Tata car. And he shook his hands and he (Ratan Tata) was so happy to hear that and the joy on his face was so amazing," Ms Radia, a close friend of Ratan Tata, recalled in an exclusive conversation with NDTV Profit.

"And when he walked away, he (Ratan Tata) said to me, 'See, they like it. The others have a comment but they like it," said the former chairperson of the defunct company Vaishnavi Corporate Communications.

On its launch, Tata Indica witnessed record bookings but sales soon plummeted after scores of negative feedback during the year 2000-01, with Tata Motors announcing its largest-ever loss of Rs 500 crore that year.

Ms Radia explained the encounter came at a time when there was "still uncertainty" about the car.

"There was still uncertainty about if Indica was going to be a success and there was a lot of... front page headlines on Tata Motors losses," she said.

In 2001, Tata launched a "new, robust Indica" after eliminating its key quality problems, the company website said. It was launched in the market as Indica V2.