The Mavalli Tiffin Room was founded as a restaurant by Parampalli Yagnanarayana Maiya and his brothers in the year 1924. In the 1970s, when India was under emergency, a Food Control Act was introduced in 1975 which mandated that food was to be sold at very low prices. This move made it difficult for MTR to maintain high standards in its restaurant business and forced it to diversify into the instant food business, selling ready-to-eat snacks such as chutneys and rasam. Since then, MTR has expanded and diversified, with MTR Department Stores opening next to the restaurant. Currently, the MTR brand represents two separate entities; the MTR restaurant business and MTR Foods, the pre-packaged food business.