Diwali is not just a festival but a season of all things spruced up! Bringing tasteful home décor inspiration, celebrity interior designer Rupin Suchak — who revamped Alia Bhatt’s residence, Ranveer Singh’s gym vanity van, Sunidhi Chauhan’s studio, and Neetu Kapoor’s office, among some of his recent projects — has some wonderful ideas ahead of the festival.
For the unversed, before venturing into interior design, Rupin worked as an art and production designer in films with acclaimed directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, R Balki, and Gauri Shinde and unfolded some cinematic dreams to reality with films like Padman and Dear Zindagi. Now having spent some momentous years in interior design, the 35-year-old designer has revamped Anubhav Sinha’s office, adding it to his exhaustive list of celebrity client work. We talk to him about festive trends, designing for celebrities, and how he fuses life in interiors that speak loads about the personality of the occupants.
How did you achieve the Diwali makeover of Anubhav Sinha's office? What major changes were incorporated?
It’s a complete makeover! Anubhav and I have been working on many things for a while now. We're on a tangent where he just gives me a space and says, ‘Revamp this for me Rupin’. To begin with, the cabin in his office was rather too simple and needed an upgrade. I saw this as an opportunity and turned around the entire cabin to make it look bigger than its previous look and feel. I went with a combo of white cedar and cement sheets to create an atmosphere that reflects a sophisticated cabin space. Further, I multiplied the space by introducing a mirrored wall because I felt the space was rather too tight. I ripped out the ceiling to lean towards an industrial ceiling and so maximised the space. In all, it’s a different space now with some quirky elements like a neon reading to inspire Anubhav.
You recently revamped your house ahead of Diwali. Tell us five ideas to give a complete makeover ahead of the festival.
- Rearrange the entire seating.
- Try to reupholster the fabrics so that they feel new and fresh.
- Introduce 4-5 types of lighting patterns like hanging, wall brackets to a pedestal.
- Get some family photo frames on the walls from past celebrations.
- If your budget permits, invest in changing the upholstery of the entire house or at least the living spaces and add a lot of greens to liven up and beautify.
Homes/interiors reflect an individual's real persona. How do you make sure that what you design stays true to the personality of the individual?
Creating a vibe in space is important to me in all my projects. I always keep my signature style unaltered. There must be a striking element in every space I create, something that is a DIY. That is my way of doing interiors because the human touch is important to my spaces. This could be anything from murals, restored furniture units, recycled art pieces, commissioned artifacts, or the use of materials that heavily rely on sustainable design.
What was your thought process while working interiors for Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh?
For Alia, who has achieved so much at such a young age, her exposure to styles and designs is considerably high. Hence she wanted a very sublime and classic look to the entire space with subtle hints of her magic that we create in the film industry. She had sophisticated taste and just like her art, I was quite surprised by the clarity. She had put down her requirements. A quirky yet classy intersection of design elements was the way to go for her office space.
For Ranveer Singh's gym vanity van, he told me that ‘something should go right in terms of energy, the moment I step in [the van]'. So as per the brief, I was clear to create a literal gym on wheels for the fitness-conscious star. This was a project that required technical knowledge of weight distribution, plus, the van had to be designed in such a way that the myriad potholes in the city do not cause the equipment to fall. In the end, the vanity van turned out better than he expected.
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