Miten Shah and Abhilash Menon, co-founders of home-grown sports bar brand, Studs Sports Bar & Grill, who relaunched one of their flagship joints at Andheri East Mumbai with a new design, ambience and product offerings recently, shared the rationale behind the re-design and the road ahead for the brand.
Studs Sports Bar & Grill, one of India’s fastest-growing homegrown sports bar chains, is preparing for a global leap, with its co-founders Miten Shah and Abhilash Menon convinced that the world is ready to be surprised by a sports-bar concept that originates not in the US or Europe, but in India. Days after relaunching their legacy outlet in Andheri East (Saki Naka) with their franchise partner, Pooja Gumaste, the duo spoke about their refreshed brand identity, shifting customer preferences, and their aggressive plans to expand beyond India to Dubai, Canada, Australia, London and the US.
The brand has recently relaunched one of their flagship outlets in Andheri East to make it more relevant and appealing to a changing and new customer profile. Having started in 2018 when the football fan-club culture in Mumbai was exploding, the outlet was originally created as a classic English-style sports den.
“It started as a vintage English, navy-green tavern type sports bar… a sports haven for sports lovers,” Shah said. Over time, however, the customer base evolved. Corporate groups and families began frequenting the place, prompting the founders to reimagine the whole design, ambience and offerings while maintaining the philosophy and ethos of a sports bar. “With the relaunch, the space was given a brighter, fresher look… an all-day diner with a great casual vibe while keeping the soul of a sports bar intact.”
The motivation for the relaunch of Andheri East joint came from their Pune outlet, said Menon. They found the white-bright ambience of the Pune outlet a game-changer attracting people of all age groups including families into the outlet. “We are trying to give the vibe of an all-day-diner and at the same time keep the soul of a sports bar intact through the new design of our Saki Naka outlet,” he informed.
Menon, who oversees the bar and food programme, emphasizes how Studs stands apart in the sports-bar category for its “balanced product” offering with its world class cocktail programmes and contemporary global comfort food including modern Indian fare. “We take food very seriously. We are not a bar that serves just nachos and fries. A significant component of our revenue comes from food.”
But the biggest story is Studs’ ambition to become the world’s first global sports-bar chain built out of India. Shah says the global market is wide open for a standardized sports-bar experience. “Sports is a worldwide language, like music is. What Hard Rock is to music, Studs will soon be to sports,” he said. “There is no chain that gives you a standardized worldwide experience with amazing screens, excellent comfort food, great beers, and a high-energy immersive screening. There is no single chain stitching the global love for sports in one room, and that is what we are very proud of.”
The brand is already scouting real estate internationally. “Dubai is where we are knocking next. Canada we are already looking at locations in the GTA in Toronto. Australia is Sydney. Then comes London or Manchester,” Shah confirms. The founders expect their first international outlet to open by Q1 2026.
Menon frames their global ambition with a sense of pride: “We want to surprise the world. Hard Rock came from the US. We want the world to know that this chain of sports bars has come from India.”
Studs currently operates 15 outlets either operational or under fit outs. They are in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Rajkot, Nagpur, Kolkata, and Nainital, with several more under construction. The founders say that while India will continue to grow, the brand is now geared for global play. “For us as a brand, expanding globally is easier than expanding in India further,” Menon stated.
As the Andheri outlet reopens with a fresh identity and as the brand’s international roadmap becomes clearer, Shah sums up their journey with quiet confidence: “You will always have a Budweiser or a Black Label anywhere. What you choose is the experience. And that’s where we have built a legacy. This is an eight-year-old outlet—and in India you rarely see bars talk about that kind of horizon. Now we are relaunching, and we are ready for the world.”
