These Zoroastrian Iranians came to India in the late 19th and early 20th century, and many of them opened restaurants now often termed Irani cafés.

[10] The cafe was an early site of gunfire and grenade explosions during the 2008 Mumbai attacks by terrorists on 26 November, at about 9:30 PM.

[12][13] After spending one and a half minutes at the Leopold Cafe, the terrorists walked over to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the main target.

The cafe defiantly reopened four days after the attack,[14][15] but was reclosed on the recommendation of the police as a safety measure after two hours, due to the unexpectedly large size of crowds gathering there.

[17] Shantaram is about an Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from jail and flees to Bombay, as Mumbai was formerly called.