Kamalini Paul is a Kolkata-based entrepreneur who turned life’s toughest moments into a story of resilience and leadership. At just 19, after her father’s sudden passing, she stepped in to manage her family’s real estate business and a newly launched hotel.
She grew De Sovrani into one of Kolkata’s top business hotels and went on to launch brands like Food Aaj Kal, POZ Hotels, Paulis Business Tower, and the iconic Serra Café. Her journey is about reinvention, purpose, and never giving up.
What does “success” mean to you today, and how has it changed through your journey?
Success, for me, was never just about monetary profit. It was always about impact. When I first stepped into my family business, we were on the brink of bankruptcy and shutdown. At that stage, success simply meant survival, stabilising the business and securing my family’s future so we could see a better tomorrow.
As I rebuilt the organisation, expanded into new brands, educated my siblings abroad, and became the sole provider for my family, success evolved. It became about matching and eventually exceeding the stability and security my father had once provided as the head of the family.
Today, with greater stability and maturity, success has taken on a deeper meaning. It is about building businesses that positively impact lives, create employment, and contribute to communities rather than just balance sheets. Every venture I undertake aims to go beyond my comfort zone because true success is never individual. It is measured by the scale of positive change you are able to create around you.
At 19, when you suddenly had to take charge after your father’s passing, what was the hardest thing to accept?
I grew up as the eldest daughter of a well-known real estate developer in Bengal, with a very sheltered upbringing. I was never allowed to manage things independently, travel alone, or even interact freely with strangers. Then, at 18, my father was diagnosed with cancer, and within months, he was gone.
Overnight, I transitioned from a protected daughter to the sole decision maker for my family and business. With no business partners, no extended family support, and a mother who had always been a homemaker, I had no one to turn to for guidance.
The hardest part was accepting the loss of my safety net. I had to become the source of stability and reassurance for others while processing my own grief internally. Learning to be strong for everyone else while feeling emotionally fragile myself was the most difficult shift, especially at such a young age.
How did you manage college life alongside such huge responsibilities?
I was pursuing my undergraduate degree at Lancaster University when my father passed away. Most people around me expected me to abandon my education and return to India immediately. However, my mother supported my decision to complete my studies in the UK.
At the same time, my father had left behind a 326 apartment residential project for the State Housing Board that was mid construction. Although all units were sold, the project still required execution and delivery. My first real responsibility as an entrepreneur was to complete this project while continuing my education.
I hired experienced quality assurance managers, supervisors, and project managers to ensure professional oversight while remaining deeply involved myself. I travelled to India every three months, conducted daily review calls, and tracked progress closely. Despite the complexity, we completed and handed over the project with an eight month delay while I successfully completed my undergraduate degree.
Once my education concluded, I returned to India full-time to formally join and lead the business.
In your early days as a leader, what kind of resistance did you face?
In the beginning, I did not see myself as a leader. I saw myself as a learner. I had never worked in an organisation before, let alone run one. When I returned to India, I chose to start with Hotel De Sovrani, which my father had launched shortly before his passing, believing hospitality would be more structured than real estate.
As a young woman, I asked the senior management team to mentor and train me. Initially, meetings were frequent, but I soon realised I was only being presented with exaggerated problems, not real decision making discussions. The turning point came during Durga Puja, Kolkata’s busiest festive season, when the hotel saw almost no footfall.
Upon investigation, I discovered that the then manager had deliberately undermined operations, hoping I would give up and move abroad. That Durga Puja became my defining moment. I stopped seeking validation, began trusting my own judgment, and asserted myself as a decisive leader.
I rebuilt the team culture, demanded accountability, and fostered merit over hierarchy. Today, during Durga Puja, De Sovrani welcomes over ten thousand guests in six days and is recognised as one of Kolkata’s must visit festive destinations.
When people doubted you because of your age or gender, what helped you stay confident?
I did not have the luxury of choice. I was handed a sinking ship and expected to keep it afloat. While people sympathised with my mother for having a daughter instead of a son and questioned my capability because of my age, my priorities were survival and responsibility.
Confidence did not come from challenging stereotypes. It came from necessity. When your family’s basic security depends on you, self-doubt becomes secondary. When you are drowning, you learn to swim regardless of the direction of the current.
Why did you focus on building the hotel brand first instead of continuing with real estate immediately?
Real estate in India is highly unorganised and deeply male dominated. While I completed my father’s pending project, I realised that continuing immediately without sufficient legal and technical knowledge could risk both failure and my father’s lifelong reputation.
Hospitality, in contrast, operated on clearer systems, professional hierarchies, and structured learning. I chose to build competence before ambition. I focused on hospitality to gain operational experience, leadership exposure, and process driven thinking.
Only once I felt confident and capable did I return to real estate, launching our first business centre a few years later. For me, business has never been about doing everything at once. It has always been about learning deeply, executing correctly, and building sustainably. I do not mind taking time, but I strongly believe in doing things right.
You learned hospitality from the ground up. What was the most challenging part of learning everything hands on?
I am deeply driven by learning, so I never found the process intimidating. Once I realised that my limited knowledge made me vulnerable, I chose to immerse myself in every department from housekeeping and maintenance to kitchen operations.
Today, I can collaborate with engineers on HVAC installations and also cook a full biryani independently. The real challenge was learning and leading simultaneously, but that experience shaped my leadership bandwidth.
I do not regret any of the challenges because they built my operational depth, empathy for teams, and ability to manage complexity, skills that serve me exceptionally well today.
What was one decision you made for De Sovrani that truly changed the business?
When I entered hospitality, I noticed that most hotels operated on rigid hierarchies and fixed formats, differentiated only by star categories. My exposure to Europe showed me that boutique hotels could have distinct personalities and emotional connections.
I repositioned De Sovrani as a character driven, accessible city hotel. We introduced a cafe with affordable pricing for young adults, something I personally felt was missing. As one of the few Bengali hoteliers in the city, I also focused strongly on authentic Bengali cuisine, which later became our biggest differentiator.
Today, De Sovrani is the first choice for Bengali cuisine and weddings in the city. We consciously segmented our offerings. The bar caters to local professionals, the restaurant to families, rooms to business travellers, and the cafe to younger audiences. This shift transformed the idea of a hotel from being just about luxury to being about relevance, inclusivity, and community connection.
During the pandemic, when everything collapsed again, what kept you going?
It took me nearly three years to stabilise De Sovrani. In 2019, when we won the Best Upscale Hotel award, it reaffirmed my belief that consistent hard work leads to success and gave me the confidence to take on an investment for a new project. However, within ten days of my bank loan being credited, the pandemic hit. As a hospitality business, our revenue dropped to zero overnight, with no clarity on when normalcy would return.
The shock was immense. After having rebuilt once through relentless effort, finding myself in an even worse position for reasons entirely beyond my control was emotionally paralysing. I allowed myself a brief period to grieve, but I soon realised that the only way forward was to keep moving.
We pivoted quickly and launched a sanitisation service using our existing hotel manpower. It gained immediate traction and helped us survive the initial crisis. Instead of abandoning our plans, we chose to proceed cautiously and consciously. Those two years were extremely difficult. Being in my mid-twenties, losing again, and still being the emotional and financial anchor for my family and team was exhausting, but giving up was never an option.
When the industry finally reopened fully, the recovery was strong. The hotel witnessed unprecedented growth, and since 2022, De Sovrani has consistently ranked as the number one hotel on TripAdvisor. The journey has been humbling and reaffirmed my belief in resilience, adaptability, and staying the course even when the odds feel overwhelming.
When you launched Food Aaj Kal and POZ Hotels, what gap in the market were you trying to solve?
My experience in Indian hospitality made me realise that it is often positioned as a luxury accessible only to a few. Yet the core pillars of hospitality, quality food, service, and hygiene, are not inherently expensive. India has abundant talent, rich geography, and cultural diversity, which, if leveraged correctly, can make budget hospitality a powerful segment, much like what countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have achieved.
With every brand I build, my intent is accessibility. POZ Hotels was conceptualised as a budget hotel chain in leisure destinations like Darjeeling and Gangtok, offering clean, reliable stays without unnecessary frills. Similarly, Food Aaj Kal was created to provide hygienic, comforting meals and familiar snacks at affordable prices.
My long-term vision is to scale budget hospitality across India without compromising on dignity, cleanliness, or warmth. Hospitality, in my view, should feel inclusive and human, not aspirational and distant.
Serra Café became an instant hit. What was your vision behind creating Kolkata’s first glass house café?
While developing our business centre in Kolkata’s financial district, I noticed a complete absence of cafes in the area, largely due to the belief that food and beverage concepts do not work there. I wanted to challenge that assumption. My initial vision was a rooftop café, but Kolkata’s climate, with long summers and monsoons, makes open air spaces impractical for most of the year.
That led to the idea of creating a glass house café, a space that feels like an indoor garden while being protected from the elements. Serra Café became Kolkata’s first true glasshouse café, designed as a greenhouse inspired retreat. The ambience is intentionally calm and restorative, offering a pause from the fast paced work environment surrounding it.
The food is kept simple and familiar, allowing guests to relax rather than navigate complex menus. Whether someone visits for a meeting or a break from work, the experience is meant to be effortless, a space where time slows down and life feels momentarily lighter.
Beyond business, you work for equality, girl child education, and animal welfare. What drives your commitment to giving back?
As a young entrepreneur, I often heard more reasons why I would fail than why I might succeed. What carried me forward was an inner conviction that did not rely on external validation. My work with women and girl child education comes from a simple belief that strength already exists within every woman. Society will always question it, but the responsibility to trust and act on that strength lies with us.
When it comes to animal welfare, my journey was unexpected. I was not always an animal lover, but my experience with my pitbull transformed how I perceive animals, especially dogs. Today, I feel deeply connected to animal welfare and strongly believe that coexistence, not eradication, is the solution for managing stray populations in India.
Animals, particularly dogs, are among the most loyal and gentle beings. Creating systems that allow humane coexistence reflects the kind of society we should strive to build. One of my personal aspirations is to eventually establish an animal shelter that embodies this philosophy.
