MUMBAI, June 1 — Indian cocktail bars are opening and closing at speed because operators spend on aesthetics and social-media appeal rather than understanding why customers return, food entrepreneur Sanket S argued on the first episode of Getting Drunk with Madira Vogue Season 3, adding that Gen Z increasingly treats nightlife as content to be performed rather than conversation to be had.
The remarks, made in conversation with Madira Vogue founder and host Priyanka Arora, moved a discussion ostensibly about desserts and fundraising into a broader critique of how India consumes, builds businesses, and socialises. Sanket is the co-founder of Scandalous Foods, a B2B Indian sweets brand that public funding records show has raised more than half a million dollars across multiple rounds.
'Indians talk about newness, consume familiarity'
Sanket's central argument on hospitality was that consumer behaviour and online enthusiasm diverge sharply. "Indians talk about newness, but consume familiarity," he said, contending that diners who praise experimental concepts online still order whiskey sours, old fashioneds, and recognisable finger food in practice.
Many bars, in his view, optimise for the wrong outcome. "Bars are becoming studios for Instagram," he said, suggesting that operators mistake virality for loyalty and end up funding visually striking concepts that fail to generate repeat visits.
The observation lands amid a well-documented churn in India's metro nightlife, where high-investment venues frequently shut within a year or two. The claim that this churn is driven primarily by an Instagram-first mindset is Sanket's analysis, offered from an operator's vantage point rather than as surveyed data.
A critique of startup culture
The conversation also turned to what Sanket described as the glamorisation of fundraising in Indian startups. "Fundraising is a means to an end, not the end," he said, arguing that valuation headlines now attract more attention than sustainable businesses.
He framed the imbalance bluntly — "364 days are grind. One day is fundraising" — and said many young founders chase visibility, investor attention, and exits before solving a genuine consumer problem. The discipline required after capital arrives, he added, is routinely underestimated.
Gen Z and performative nightlife
On younger drinkers, Sanket said Gen Z's relationship with alcohol and nightlife differs markedly from that of millennials, who associated bars with socialising and shared experiences. "People are going out for Instagram, not for conversations anymore," he said, linking the shift to heavy social-media exposure and rising wellness consciousness.
These drivers, he suggested, are reshaping how often and why younger consumers drink — though he did not cite specific consumption data to quantify the trend.
Context: the company behind the comments
Founded in 2021 and based in the Mumbai–Nashik belt, Scandalous Foods supplies preservative-free, single-serve traditional mithai with an extended shelf life to restaurants, caterers, and cloud kitchens. Rather than open another sweet shop, the company has positioned itself as what Sanket calls a "mithai operating partner" for the food-service sector, tackling distribution, packaging, and shelf-life gaps.
Public records from startup-tracking platforms place its total funding at roughly $580,000 to $613,000 raised across pre-seed and seed rounds backed by investors including the Indian Angel Network and New Age India Fund.
The full episode is available on Madira Vogue's YouTube channel. The series, hosted by Priyanka Arora, profiles entrepreneurs and creators across hospitality, food, and consumer culture.
Sources & attributions: Statements by Sanket S as made on Getting Drunk with Madira Vogue Season 3 (Madira Vogue, YouTube); funding figures per Tracxn, CB Insights, Entrepreneur India, and Entrackr reporting.