The late-1970s Sipani Badal, at the INDEA booth, at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025
Okay, not really. I mean, the Sipani Badal isn’t
really coming back in any shape or form. But for one glorious week, this
three-wheeled plastic-fantastic from the ’70s had showgoers – at the Bharat
Mobility Global Expo 2025 – in its thrall. This was, mind, India’s premier
automotive show, where car and motorcycle manufacturers were busy taking the
covers off their latest, greatest electric vehicles that are all the rage these
days. Swoopy, swanky styling, powerful electric motors, batteries that charge
quickly and allow vehicles to be driver farther than ever before, and plush,
luxurious cabins filled with high-tech electronics, ADAS and big touchscreens –
that was the vision of mobility shown at this year’s Expo. And yet, amongst all
this glitter and EV-glamour, the stone-simple Badal held its own, bringing
happy smiles to the hundreds of people who visited the INDEA booth from 17th
to 22nd January.
What is INDEA and how is it connected to the Badal? Well, the Indian School for Design of Automobiles (INDEA), which is being set up by Mr Avik Chattopadhyay in collaboration with XLRI, is an upcoming institution that will specialize in teaching automotive design. The design school, which is expected to be ready by the end of this year, will accept the first batch of students for its M.Des (in automotive design) program in 2026. INDEA was one of the participants in this year’s Bharat Mobility Global Expo and I had the opportunity to spend some time at the INDEA booth over 5-6 days, during the Expo, meeting visitors and talking to them about automotive design.
What is INDEA and how is it connected to the Badal? Well, the Indian School for Design of Automobiles (INDEA), which is being set up by Mr Avik Chattopadhyay in collaboration with XLRI, is an upcoming institution that will specialize in teaching automotive design. The design school, which is expected to be ready by the end of this year, will accept the first batch of students for its M.Des (in automotive design) program in 2026. INDEA was one of the participants in this year’s Bharat Mobility Global Expo and I had the opportunity to spend some time at the INDEA booth over 5-6 days, during the Expo, meeting visitors and talking to them about automotive design.
INDEA
Founder and Chairman, Mr Chattopadhyay had decided to display the Badal at the
INDEA booth because the car represents one of the earliest attempts at indigenous
automotive design – it was designed and built by the Bangalore-based Sunrise
Automotive Industries Ltd. (SAIL) in the late-1970s. Perhaps inspired by the UK’s
Reliant Robin, the fibreglass-bodied, three-wheeled, four-seater Badal was
designed by SAIL and looked like nothing else on Indian roads at that time.
Remember, in the context of buying a family car, there was very little to choose
from, in India, in those days. There was the Premier Padmini, the Hindustan
Motors Ambassador and the Standard Herald / Gazel, which was already on its
last legs towards the end of the 1970s. In all of this, the Badal, with its
three-wheeled layout and fibreglass body, could have been an interesting
proposition. The cabin was big enough to seat four adults, but the car was
woefully underpowered. SAIL (which was later renamed to Sipani Automobiles) saw
it fit to source a 198cc, 10bhp engine from Scooters India, for the Badal. That
engine, which may have been perfectly well-suited to powering a scooter, wasn’t
really up to the task of moving a three-wheeled car that could seat up to four
people. The gearbox, also sourced from Scooters India, lacked refinement and
the cabin was bare-bones basic. Given all of this, it’s no surprise that buyers
chose to stick with their beloved Padminis and Ambassadors, the the Badal soon faded
into oblivion.
Between 1976-77 and 1982, SAIL/Sipani did manage to sell close to 700 units of the Badal and the little car was also featured in the movie Ram Balram, in which Dharamendra and Amitabh Bachchan can be seen driving one in a song sequence. However, despite its manufacturer’s best efforts, the Badal soon drove off into the sunset, even as the Padmini and the Ambassador managed to soldier on somehow. However, the little car did underline the enterprising, can-do spirit of Indian automotive start-ups of the 1970s; in the License Raj era, with meagre resources, lack of access to contemporary technologies and in the face of government restrictions, SAIL did what it could to produce a car for the masses, a car that was unconventional to boot and one that dared to take on the established might of Premier Automobiles and Hindustan Motors.
It did not succeed, but the Badal remains a memorable piece of Indian motoring history, one that was briefly reserructed at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo this year. Personally, I was shocked by the number of people who came up to me to ask questions like whether this car has been launched in the market, if it’s going to be launched soon, how much it costs and where they can buy one from! Some older people came up and reminisced about the car and, in some cases, shared their memories of having driven one or having been driven in one at some point in their lives. Younger people broke into smiles at seeing the cheery little car and some said it’s the ’cutest’ thing they’d seen at the Expo. Everybody wanted to have their photograph taken with the car. And in this, putting the 1970s firmly behind it, the Badal finally rode again – not on the road, admittedly, but in people’s hearts. What more could a 50-year-old car ask for?
Note: The Badal exhibited at the INDEA booth came from the collection of the Heritage Transport Museum, based in Taoru, Gurgaon. The car has been restored by Mr Tarun Thakral.
Between 1976-77 and 1982, SAIL/Sipani did manage to sell close to 700 units of the Badal and the little car was also featured in the movie Ram Balram, in which Dharamendra and Amitabh Bachchan can be seen driving one in a song sequence. However, despite its manufacturer’s best efforts, the Badal soon drove off into the sunset, even as the Padmini and the Ambassador managed to soldier on somehow. However, the little car did underline the enterprising, can-do spirit of Indian automotive start-ups of the 1970s; in the License Raj era, with meagre resources, lack of access to contemporary technologies and in the face of government restrictions, SAIL did what it could to produce a car for the masses, a car that was unconventional to boot and one that dared to take on the established might of Premier Automobiles and Hindustan Motors.
It did not succeed, but the Badal remains a memorable piece of Indian motoring history, one that was briefly reserructed at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo this year. Personally, I was shocked by the number of people who came up to me to ask questions like whether this car has been launched in the market, if it’s going to be launched soon, how much it costs and where they can buy one from! Some older people came up and reminisced about the car and, in some cases, shared their memories of having driven one or having been driven in one at some point in their lives. Younger people broke into smiles at seeing the cheery little car and some said it’s the ’cutest’ thing they’d seen at the Expo. Everybody wanted to have their photograph taken with the car. And in this, putting the 1970s firmly behind it, the Badal finally rode again – not on the road, admittedly, but in people’s hearts. What more could a 50-year-old car ask for?
Note: The Badal exhibited at the INDEA booth came from the collection of the Heritage Transport Museum, based in Taoru, Gurgaon. The car has been restored by Mr Tarun Thakral.
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