Poor relatives from Nepal fight for their share.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Although he passed away just over one year ago, the late fashion mogul Shail Upadhya, who was a regular in the social circuit in New York City and the Hamptons in Long Island, is back in the news as his Nepalese relatives have filed a lawsuit against a European woman who has laid claim to the $5 million Upadhya left behind to his name.
Upadhya’s half-siblings – Ranjan, Prem, and Mukta – are all currently living in Nepal in poor conditions, poverty stricken and looking to claim the money they believe rightfully belongs to them. In their lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, lies a sordid tale fit for the movies: a rich baroness, a grief-stricken old man, the changing of a will, and a desperate attempt to right the wrongs done to a dying man in his final months of life.
According to the case, Upadhya was at the funeral of his dearly departed girlfriend Karen Bass in 2012 when he first Barones von Langendorff, a woman who supposedly became very friendly (platonically, as far as reports go) and close with Upadhya. Overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his love, Upadhya soon fell into emotional despair and physical weakness, requiring around-the-clock medical care.
The three half-siblings contend that the Baroness used Upadhya’s incredibly frail condition to take advantage of him, prodding him to drop them out of his will and disinherit them altogether. They don’t blame him for it, saying that he was too transfixed by the Baroness’s fake kindness to listen to reason. They blame her for convincing Upadhya to sign over his $5 million inheritance to her, thus leaving them out in the cold when they need the money the most.
Upadhya died last January at the age of 79, less than a year after his girlfriend of 30 years passed away. The Baroness made off with the money left to her in his will, which the half-siblings say was garnered through the use of “force, flattery, [and] threats.” She also goes by the name of Gabriele Langer, and lives at the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, New York City, and is the wife of Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff, a deceased perfume titan.
Upadhya was a former diplomatic official with the United Nations who retired and began designing very flashy outfits. His designs caught the eyes of several top notch design houses within the industry, launching him into the top tiers of fashion circles around the world. He is perhaps most well-known for a white suit he designed that is plastered with logos of all sorts of automobile manufacturers, a gaudy outfit typical of his design aesthetic.
His outfits were usually single-editions and hand-painted, worn by he himself, and although his garments were often polarizing, he is remembered as a well-mannered, kindly man.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com