Deccani Biryani: A biryani that is everyone’s and no one’s

Pochampally Ikat has the GI tag and in the next few months, the Tandur Red Gram (toor dal) is likely to get the GI tag for agricultural produce. The GI tag application for Deccani Biryani was abandoned in 2017, but this has not stopped copycats and wannabes to use the tag of ‘Hyderabadi Dum Biryani’, be it on the streets of Gurugram in Haryana or the bylanes of Nizamuddin or Berhampur in Odisha, the Hyderabadi biryani name sells.

“Hyderabadi biryani has more masala, Moradabadi has less. We make both,” says a biryani maker in Nizamuddin. But in the absence of a GI tag, anyone mixing meat and rice anywhere can sell it as Hyderabadi biryani. “The association members who tried to get the GI tag for Hyderabad biryani did not want to share the formula. They believed that it could be replicated by others if all the details were shared. All of them have slight tweaks to the formula,” said a restaurant owner.  

“In the instant application, the applicant failed to prove the historical origin of the product with supporting documents and failed to make use of the opportunities provided during the show cause hearing to prove the historical origin,” said the committee which examined the GI tag application of Connoisseurs of Deccani Biryani Maker Association.

But for a successful GI tag, the steps are easy to navigate:

1) Application showing: An indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured goods as originating, or manufactured in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory

2) Historical and supporting documents

3) Map showing the area in which the produce is created

4) Preliminary scrutiny and examination

5) Publication in the Geographical Indications journal: Every application is published in the Geographical Indications Journal within three months

6) Opposition to registration: Any person can file a notice of opposition within three months (extendable by another month on request which has to be filed before three months) opposing the GI application published in the Journal

7) Registration of GI tag