Diva Maharashtracha, the resto-bar that showcases Marathi cuisine and music. (below) The entrance to the resto-bar. (Fotocorp)

At award-winning resto-bar Diva Maharashtracha, a waiter or manager lurks behind you, eavesdropping. If you are speaking fluent Marathi, welcome to a hefty discount.

If not, pay double for your lunch.

Not quite Raj Thackeray’s way of forcing the Marathi culture curry down “cosmopolitan” Mumbai’s throat, but tasteless and discriminatory all the same to many non-Marathi patrons of the restaurant.

Diva Maharashtracha, which showcases Marathi cuisine and music, is offering a 50 per cent discount on the main course lunch, and 25 per cent on the main course dinner, exclusively to Marathi customers on weekdays.

But you can’t just step in and declare yourself a son or daughter of the soil.

A restaurant employee confirmed that staff members stand behind diners to spy on them. “If we overhear people at a table speaking Marathi, we extend the discount to them,” he said.

What if the group is mixed?

“If the number of Marathis or Marathi speakers is higher, they can have the discount.”

Sujata Mallik, who recently visited the restaurant, felt slighted when she was told that unlike the person at the next table, she couldn’t have the discount because she did not speak Marathi.

“It’s odd and discriminatory. The experience leaves a bitter taste in the mouth,” she said.

Suhas Achawat, who owns the restaurant along with his wife, said he wasn’t looking to please Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, who recently “banned” the release of films featuring the Bachchans after Jaya Bachchan said she preferred to speak Hindi rather than Marathi.

“I am not fanning regionalism,” Achawat, a psychiatrist, said. “Most people visiting us are Marathis. They are simple people who do not eat out much. I am giving this discount to increase their footfall. It’s purely a business decision, nothing to do with Raj Thackeray’s pro-Marathi movement.”

He went on: “My restaurant’s policy of giving discounts to Maharashtrians started when we inaugurated this place nearly two years ago. It has no connection with current politics. In fact, I am a victim of Raj Thackeray’s politics. I had to change very expensive signboards at all the three restaurants I own and get them redone in Marathi.”

Raj, whose party is feared for its hooliganism, has ordered all shops and offices in the state to put up signboards in Marathi.

Two years ago, a restaurant in Navi Mumbai had provoked outrage by naming itself Hitler’s Cross, putting up posters of the German dictator in uniform and printing the Nazi swastika on its signboard and menu cards.

It changed its name to Cross Café after protests by Jewish community leaders and the Israeli and German consuls-general in Mumbai.

Politicians seem to have sniffed an opportunity in the Diva Maharashtracha controversy. State Congress chief Kripashankar Singh, a non-Maharashtrian, has called the restaurant’s policy “an affront to Mumbai’s cosmopolitan spirit”.

Achawat said he offered various discount schemes to companies and banks, which extended these privileges to their customers.

“There is something for everyone,” he said. “A simple matter is being blown out of proportion.”