SAMIR KUMAAR MODI COLOUR ME COOL

INDIA'S COSMETICS CZAR LIVES THE GOOD LIFE - WORLD TRAVELS, A PASSION FOR VINTAGE MEMORABILIA, A GOURMAND WHO LOVES THAI FOOD, AND A CAR COLLECTOR WHO CAN TAKE APART HIS HARLEY-DAVIDSON. BUT BENEATH THE BREEZY EXTERIOR LIE GUTS OF STEEL - A MAN WHO HAS REINVENTED HIMSELF AND HIS COMPANY, BATTLING COMPETITORS, TO CREATE A WORLD-CLASS BRAND

- Priya Kumari Rana

THE slate-grey Delhi skies, redolent with rain, have burst, and it’s pouring. I wind my way around a poster-red Ferrari parked in the porch of a newly built section of entrepreneur and industrialist scion Samir Kumaar Modi’s Chhatarpur farmhouse, through the glass doors of a two-storey ‘home office’ constructed out of black containers, up the stairs by a wall of books ("the top 100 books you will ever want to read"), in a fun, playful space filled with a jukebox that only plays 80s retro hits, a vintage coke machine, Marilyn Monroe coke crates, fencing and polo gear. Finally, I am sitting on a Union Jack-covered sofa, opposite the man himself, who’s taking me, between photo takes, through his life’s journey — his opportunities, myriad challenges, literally working his way up the proverbial ladder, finding his niche, creating a beauty brand from scratch, and his life’s greatest passions.

The space — which has a very masculine aesthetic — is literally strewn with memorabilia picked up over the years by the 52-year-old Managing Director of Modi Enterprises – the parent company of Modicare, Colorbar Cosmetics, and the 24SEVEN chain of grocery stores. “PreCovid, I was out of the house, travelling 240 days a year,” says Samir Modi. Now, the inveterate traveller is mostly on the road to promote Modicare and Colorbar within India, but his trips abroad have also picked up (he recently took a holiday in Ibiza, and more recently, in Thailand, with friends and family). And how did this container man-cave come about? “When my children were growing up (he has two daughters), I wanted to build them a tree house,” says Samir. “I never got around to it, but that’s when the idea of the container came about – it was easy to do, although the interiors and exteriors needed work.”