Mannat, As Never Seen Before!

A deeply private person, Gauri Khan allows few people into the inner recesses of her heart and home. But she speaks freely and proudly of Mannat. Quite possibly because it is as good as her greatest love story.

- Aditi Bhimjyani

Gauri Khan doesn’t like flowers. Floral arrangements and artificial plants feature nowhere in her home. Instead potted ferns abound, scattered around tables everywhere. “Plants give out positive energy. They are good oxygen,” she says. Her passion for making a house a home is obvious when she points to the vertical gardens that she has been working on in the lawns outside her sea-facing bungalow Mannat at Bandstand in Mumbai. One of the city’s most popular landmarks today, this mansion has been adored by fans of her superstar husband from the outside for about two decades now. Khan has remained more reticent with the public eye; but once she lets me into her home and we start talking about her life and work, there’s a warmth that takes over. She begins by admitting that Mannat hasn’t just served as her family home since 2001—but also became her blank canvas, one that let her grow and develop as an interior designer. And as their family grew and renovations and redesigns were made to suit the changing needs, it also shaped her design aesthetic. (Khan and architect-designer Kaif Faquih laboured over the mansion for nearly a decade).

LIVING LEGACIES

Though the terrace of the house is her “happiest place”, for Khan, the most endearing aspect of Mannat is its facade. “I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world,” she says. Pristine white, glamorous, imposing, with those massive classical pillars that are carefully angled into the selfies of those hundreds of fans who throng the place every day.