In Balasinaurus.: Rediscovering India’s Forgotten Art Deco Town, visual artist Aashim Tyagi turns his lens on Balasinor, a small princely town in Gujarat better known for its dinosaur fossils than its design heritage. Through a striking series of photographs, Tyagi uncovers an overlooked chapter of India’s modernist story — one where Art Deco’s global aesthetic met local imagination, producing homes that shimmer with Gujarati lettering, bold colours, and Swadeshi-inspired geometry.
In conversation with Indulge Express, the artist reflects on how rediscovering Balasinor’s Art Deco legacy became a journey through history, memory, and design.
Tucked away in Gujarat’s Mahisagar district, Balasinor’s architectural history has remained largely unnoticed. Known mainly as India’s “Jurassic Park,” the town also hides a rare design legacy from the 1930s and ’40s, when Art Deco quietly flourished far from India’s major urban centres. Wealthy local traders, influenced by the era’s modernist trends, commissioned homes that blended global design ideals with Gujarati craftsmanship.
“It began as a road trip with two of my friends from Vadodara,” Tyagi recalls. “We had planned it as a treasure hunt to document historical structures in Balasinor, which most people only know for its dinosaur park. When I arrived and started photographing, it felt like excavating layers of history.”
In these homes, Tyagi found more than elegant façades — he found a dialogue between modernity and identity. “Even the typography on the buildings reflected that experimentation,” he says. “Devanagari lettering was adapted into stylised, geometric fonts. It was innovation deeply rooted in local culture.”
Reconnecting generations
Since news of the exhibition broke, Tyagi has been flooded with messages from families originally from Balasinor — many now settled in Mumbai, the US, and across the world. “People began reaching out to share personal memories,” he says. “Some told me they’d never visited Balasinor but seeing these images helped them reconnect with their roots.”
One visitor grew emotional as he recognised a house resembling his grandparents’ home; another elderly man, visiting the exhibition in a wheelchair, said the photographs took him back to his childhood. “Moments like these are profoundly fulfilling,” Tyagi says. “It shows how images can become a bridge between generations and geographies.”
The exhibition also caught the attention of Princess Aaliya Babi, descendant of Balasinor’s royal Babi dynasty. “She personally called to thank me for bringing this story to light,” Tyagi adds.
Lessons for a changing city
Reflecting on Mumbai’s rapid redevelopment, Tyagi expresses both concern and optimism. “Today, much of the city’s architecture looks homogenised — like clusters of boxes,” he observes. “Change is inevitable, but we must learn from the past. The reason older buildings endure is because they were thoughtfully designed. We need that same intent — to build not just structures, but meaningful cityscapes.”
For Tyagi, art becomes a way of reminding viewers that design, like memory, shapes how we inhabit our cities. “The role of an artist,” he says, “is to stay hopeful — to find that glimmer of light that can lead the way forward.”
Balasinaurus.: Rediscovering India’s Forgotten Art Deco Town
Artist: Aashim Tyagi
Dates: Till November 30, 2025
Time: 12 noon to 7 pm
Venue: Dilip Piramal Art Gallery, NCPA, Nariman Point
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