Remembering MDH's Dharampal Gulati: A look at some memorable ads featuring the 97-year-old king of spices

'Mahashay' Dharampal Gulati, owner of the masala brand MDH, passed away on December 3 aged 97. Born in Sialkot (now in Pakistan), Gulati's family migrated to India after the partition.

His father Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati had set up the masala company in 1919 in Sialkot. After migrating to India they opened a shop at Ajmal Khan Road, Karol Bagh and expanded from there.

If one has seen advertisements of MDH Masala over the years, it is hard to miss Dharampal Gulati, the king of spices. Gulati is famously known as grandpa from the MDH advertisement.

Despite being in his nineties, Gulati continued to be the brand ambassador of MDH Spices and appeared in every TV ad until very recently.

A look at some of the most memorable MDH ads:

MDH was among the first few companies to launch an aggressive press ad campaign in 1948.

MDH launched its first television ad in 1984 featuring Dharampal Gulati. The ad also featured veteran actors Shafi Inamdar and Neena Gupta.

Soon after, all the TV ads featured Dharam Pal as the brand ambassador for his company. The cardboard box pack, launched in 1948, also carried his photograph.

Asked why MDH doesn't feature a celebrity of Bollywood actors, Gulati had said, "People ask me why I don’t get Shah Rukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan to promote my masalas. Why should I ride on their success to promote my brand? I am the man behind the success of my product, so shouldn’t I be promoting it?"

MDH recently celebrated its 100th anniversary by releasing an ad featuring Gulati.

Here are few more MDH ads featuring Dharampal Gulati.