Bollywood actress Bhumi Pednekar launched Backbay in 2025 alongside her sister Samiksha, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, positioning it as a premium natural mineral water brand sourced from glacial melt in the Himalayas and bottled at the source by a women-led facility in Himachal Pradesh.
Priced at Rs 150 for 500 ml and Rs 200 for 750 ml, the brand drew sharp reactions almost immediately. One Reddit user wrote: “Bhumi Pednekar thinks Rs 200 water is ‘accessible’… bless her Bollywood bubble,” while another added, “I was just thinking tap water isn’t doing it for me anymore. Thank you, Bhumi.” A third simply wrote: “Being delulu is not the solulu.” Bhumi, for her part, has not blinked.
Now, in a new interview with astrologer and content creator Jai Madaan on her YouTube channel, the actress has defended the brand – and announced that Backbay is no longer just a water brand.
“Yes, my water is expensive. There’s no doubt about it.”
Pednekar was refreshingly direct with Jai Madaan. “Yes, my water is expensive. There’s no doubt about it,” she said. “But the category that I am in, which is the premium water category… the legacy brands in the same category, the giants that I was told I can’t go up against, their water is much more expensive than mine.”
She went further, pointing to international brands already popular in India: “In India, there are so many international brands that we drink. And you are paying Rs 400-500 for them.”
As per the interview, Pednekar said that from the beginning she had clarity about what Backbay was and was not. “As an entrepreneur, you need to have the clarity which category you are in. I have clarity that I am in the premium category. When I want to enter the mass market, I will come with a sister brand for Backbay, not with Backbay. This is what I am catering to,” she said.
The actress also recalled being told when she started the company that she was “going up against giants” – but held her ground. “We are running this company ethically. We are trying to deliver the cleanest version of everything that we are promising and it’s fun,” she said.
The brand has also evolved since its launch. As per the interview, Bhumi confirmed that Backbay is expanding beyond water entirely. “We are not a water brand, now we are a beverage brand. Now we will launch our sparkling water. We are entering the space of holistic living through beverages and we are doing a lot of R&D. Our vision is to build a clean brand,” she said.
A self-funded bet – and ambitious targets
What makes Backbay a slightly different story in the celebrity brand space is that there is no external funding behind it. Speaking to Business Today at the time of the launch, Bhumi revealed that the company is entirely self-funded, backed by years of personal investment.
“I had started investing money since the age of 17 from my very first salary, which was a cheque of Rs 7,000 from Yash Raj Films. The reason we could back Backbay is because of my investments,” she said.
As per the brand’s website, Backbay currently sells a pack of 12 500 ml units for Rs 1,556 – working out to approximately Rs 129.6 per unit – and a pack of 12 750 ml units for Rs 2,111, roughly Rs 176 per unit.
Distribution is live on Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Amazon, and premium retail outlets across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. According to Indian Retailer, the sisters have set a revenue target of Rs 100 crore within four years. Whether consumers get on board with the pitch remains to be seen, but for a brand that has generated this much conversation, Backbay has already cleared its first hurdle.