The Day McDonald’s Came To India

Brut India

In 1997, a fast-food joint bearing the face of a clown arrived in India selling non-beef burgers in Delhi. Today there are over a hundred McDonald's restaurants in India. #TBT

Transcript

00:00McDonald's has been unusually slow to take its fast food to India, and perhaps with reason.

00:08After all, this is a country where holy cow really means something.

00:13The Delhi Burger Bar was bound to be a McDonald's with a difference.

00:19And not just the coconut-smashing opening traditional in these parts.

00:23Sure, it looks familiar, but the beef burger was never going to be a Hindu favorite.

00:28No, this is McVegetarian and McMutton fare. The chicken too is reprieved.

00:34Some things don't change. Even in India, the fries are French.

00:38McDonald's hopes the Delhi franchise will be the first of many in India.

00:42Their second will open in Bombay.

00:45There's a huge potential market, almost a billion Indians,

00:49most of whom have never tried to coax a thick chocolate shake through a straw.

00:53As they've done worldwide, McDonald's will try to convert them while they're young.

00:58But unlike their foreign cousins, India's cattle will survive to grow on.

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