An artful blend of opulence, modernity and nostagia, Bollywood celebrity homes are a trove of design inspiration, no matter where you're from or where you live. From a jewel-coloured London townhouse and a hacienda-style LA getaway, to an earthy oasis in Mumbai, they are brimming with ideas to super-charge your next home makeover.
1. Bollywood Actress Sonam Kapoor’s Mumbai Home Pays Homage to Indian Craft
Ornate, nostalgic and brimming with shining examples of Indian artisanal heritage, Sonam Kapoor’s artfully layered Mumbai home is an homage to the cultural diversity that makes India, India.
One of Bollywood’s leading lights, Kapoor is also a great patron of Indian design and decorative arts, as evidenced in the succession of interiors she has created for herself over the last several years. Whether in her London townhouse or now in Mumbai, these homes embody her innate sense of craftsmanship and detail.
“This house represents a new chapter for me, as a woman, a collector – and a mother,” Sonam Kapoor declares of the new place, which she shares with her husband, entrepreneur Anand Ahuja, and their toddler son, Vayu. Having spent years in London, it was a deep-breath moment to make the decision to spend more time in Mumbai. “It was Anand who pushed for it, his argument being that with a baby on the way we should be closer to family,” she says. “I had bought this thoroughly modern, and slightly soulless, apartment as an investment years ago.” As a self-professed lover of old buildings, Kapoor didn’t love the idea of living in a high-rise. “As I spent more time in it, however, the double-height ceilings – so rare in this city – and the sweep of the lateral space began to seduce me,” she says. “I had been longing for a base in which to curate all the things I have collected while filming in far-flung locations over the years. And I relished the idea of creating a spectacle from sheer nothingness.” Click here for the full house tour.
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2. Madhuri Dixit’s Mumbai Apartment Features Art by the Legendary Artist M.F. Husain
Not many can say that the noted Indian modernist M.F. Husain created art solely for them. But then, Madhuri Dixit is no ordinary person. Her star has shone bright on Bollywood's horizon for over four decades, and circa right now, her latest movie Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 has reminded her legion of fans why she is, quite simply the Madhuri Dixit.
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Over a generations-spanning movie career that shot to superstardom with the 1988 hit Tezaab, it is only natural to expect Dixit to have accumulated well-wishers from all walks of life. But none was more unforgettable than the artist M.F. Husain (Maqbool Fida Husain), who was also one of the founding members of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group in the 1940s, right after India's independence. Spellbound by her charm, he developed a movie, Gaja Gamini (2000), born entirely out of his admiration for her grace. But that was not enough for Husain who also took brush to canvas, immortalising Dixit as his eternal muse. Those paintings became the inspiration for Indian architect Apoorva Shroff (of Lyth Design) to develop the interior concept for Madhuri Dixit's Mumbai home which she shares with her husband, Dr Shriram Madhav Nene and two boys. Click here for a tour of Madhuri Dixit's art-filled Mumbai home.
3. Ananya Panday’s Home in Mumbai Is an Oasis of Calm Designed by Gauri Khan
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Where does young Bollywood star Ananya Panday go to escape the frenzy her latest project – Netflix's new thriller, CTRL – has caused? Home, of course, but this time it's not the one she shared with her parents actor Chunky Panday and Bhavana Pandey, the star of another TV phenomenon, Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives. Ananya Panday's home in Mumbai – it's her first time living on her own – is not your average starter home. It's been designed by one of India's leading interior designers (and Bollywood wife supreme), Gauri Khan.
When living at home with her parents, Ananya Panday often indulged in thoughts of what things she would do differently, in her own unique way, if she had her own place. “It seems so silly and small, but I wanted to buy my own cutlery and host people a certain way,” she says. Now seated in the living room of her new Mumbai home – a breezy one-bedroom apartment just a few storeys up from her parents’ place in Bandra – the 25-year-old actor tells us that this new acquisition happened quite naturally, as did getting its interiors done by Khan, a long-time family friend. Step inside Ananya Panday’s calm Mumbai apartment.
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4. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s London Townhouse Is a Masterclass in Expat Home Decor
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"When we first moved into this house, my husband and I slept on the floor on a mattress.” These are not words you would expect to hear from a global superstar and style icon, but Sonam Kapoor Ahuja has an endearing frankness about her that captured the hearts of a generation gasping for newness and authenticity. Her London home, tucked away in a handsome period townhouse in tony Notting Hill, is an amalgamation of the East and the West.
When Sonam started dating Anand Ahuja, a dashing fashion entrepreneur with serious style credentials of his own, he was already living in London. Over the course of their long-distance courtship, the idea that the couple would have one foot in India and the other in British capital had taken root. “When we met, Anand was living on Kensington Church Street and I just fell in love with the neighbourhood,” recalls Sonam. Situated on a leafy square, with access to a pristinely manicured private garden and grand windows that flood the home with London light, this is truly real estate heaven. “This house is not very far from where we lived when we were dating… a sense of family and community is abundant here.” With a clutch of friends living close by, the couple have founded their own Notting Hill Set.
In 2020 as the world faced an unexpected, lingering pause, Sonam’s diary cleared up; suddenly there were no planes to catch, no shoots to plan. “The lockdown made me realise how important that sense of homely comfort is to me,” she says. She called upon the Mumbai-based architect Rooshad Shroff to help her bring her ideas to life. With a gorgeously jewel-toned sitting room, its walls covered in de Gournay’s ‘Early Views of India’ and an assortment of furnishings by Rose Uniacke, Allegra Hicks and Charles Zana, it is safe to say that Sonam has beautifully avoided all cross-cultural décor clichés.
While nesting during the lockdown had its own charm, Sonam felt the need to express her creativity and opportunity arose in the form of a mews property that the couple bought, just a short walk from their home. Sonam invited her close friend, the stylist Nikhil Mansata to collaborate on the creative space that is best described as a hybrid between a gallery, office and an artist’s studio.
With an elegantly draped fitting room, the upper level doubles up as an atelier where Sonam shoots imagery for her compelling Instagram feed and tests looks for personal appearances. The ground floor salon meanwhile houses an ever evolving gallery featuring South Asian artists. – Pratyush Sarup
Read More: Sonam Kapoor At Home in London: 5 Ways To Steal her Decor Style
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5. Step Inside Bollywood Star Jaaved Jaaferi’s Mediterranean-Style Home in Mumbai
Jaaved Jaaferi's recent move to Bandra is inspired by sentimental reverence, not just for the coastal vista but also for his two elder children, Meezaan and Alaviaa. “Earlier my problem with Bandra was that, with the amount of construction everywhere, buildings are situated amusingly close together where you can open the door and ask for a cup of sugar,” he explains, “but when I saw this place I just fell in love.” After hours of discussion and brainstorming, his succinct brief to Kush Bhayani of KULx Studio was to create a space with minimal sophistication. “Warm, natural, eclectic.’’ And so, Bhayani designed a home that feels rich with with history… a mature, expansive sibling of the Bollywood star's first home. – Harleen Kalsi
Read More: Tour Bollywood star Jaaved Jaaferi’s sea-facing apartment where nostalgia and modernity come together through an earthy palette
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6. The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar and Neha Kapur's Los Angeles Home
When The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar moved into a Nichols Canyon compound with his wife, Neha Kapur Nayyar, in late 2011, he was overwhelmed by the idea of decorating a 5,000-square-foot hacienda surrounded by jungle – or as close to jungle as one gets in Los Angeles.The couple interviewed many designers and were introduced by a Big Bang writer to Lory and Mats Johansson of Just Joh, who've designed many a celebrity homes, including Richard Branson’s Necker Island getaway.
The design pros helped bring a new lightness to the previously chintz-filled interior, without altering the bones, and even retained a few chandeliers that have been hanging in the house for some 25 years. Their No. 1 priority was maintaining a flowing indoor-outdoor feel. “We wanted to have this living, breathing energy,” says Neha, “so you see a lot of plants inside, and there’s a Buddha inside and outside.”
While they were on the same page about integrating their Indian heritage, the couple’s aesthetic preferences are quite opposite. Kunal has a “Pop Art side” he attributes to his interior designer mother, who loves bright colours, while Neha prefers subtler hues. One exception to her more subdued taste comes from a lively, six-foot-by-eight-foot, primary-coloured Gond painting by Venkat Shyam, depicting the fable of a tiger cub being brought up among sheep. “A lot of the things in the house are talking points – they all have stories,” Neha says, pointing to their gradual, deliberate accumulation of decor as the reason. A great percentage, which they feel brings the house to life, is from India. The compound is “an amalgamation of the country we live in and the country we’re from and the places we’ve traveled. We want this to be a story of our journey,” Kunal says. – Kathryn Romeyn
7. Grammy Award-Winner Anoushka Shankar’s London Home That Mirrors the Story of Her Life
For AD, seven-time Grammy-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar opened the doors to her London townhouse – her first independent home built with influences of London and Delhi, and a light California vibe – designed with help from friend and interior designer Rachel Chudley. “I told her, ‘I’d like all of my life represented,’” laughs Anoushka, especially, she says, her nomadic childhood spent between the British capital, Delhi, and California.
“It was about pulling everything together with textures, textiles, and colours that evoke memories but also blending them into something that still feels like a London home,” says Chudley. The result has a delightful sense of cultural ambiguity: The casually Californian kitchen island faces dark wood cabinets that feel distinctly Mediterranean; a daybed is upholstered in burnt orange velvet and layered with cushions wrapped in crisp white linen and a delicately patterned fabric that was once a rug; and the curtains are made from Anoushka’s mother’s old saris, their opulence offset with sedate grey linen.
Chudley was also keen for the rooms to become “more elaborate” as you travel up through the house. On the ground floor sits an extended living room that doubles as Anoushka’s studio, complete with sound panels covered in dip-dyed silk; “My initial plan was to build a garden studio,” adds Anoushka, “but I had my planning permission denied.” Above that, is the room her sons share, and a family living room with floor-to-ceiling windows and a buttery sofa where the trio cuddle up to watch films. Then, up a final flight of stairs, you reach Anoushka’s bedroom: an oasis of forest-green plant pots, peachy pink drapes and jewel-toned cushions scattered across a four-poster bed. – Radhika Seth
8. Actors Aditya Seal and Anushka Ranjan’s Calm and Collected Apartment in Mumbai
At the door of actors (and newlyweds) Aditya Seal and Anushka Ranjan Seal's new Mumbai duplex, the nameplate is conspicuous by its absence. What is not is the cheery (LED) baby seal that takes its place, animating the wall and nodding to its namesake owners. “It's fun to watch people guess," says Anushka. "Those who get it, get it. And it makes for a great conversation-starter." But the unlikely sea creature isn’t the only thing setting the entryway apart – because if the peach-toned front door (a hat-tip to Anushka's fondness for English country houses) is anything to go by, it’s clear that the aesthetic idiosyncrasies only keep getting better.
"The brief was to create a space that was warm, full of light; with textures, muted colours and patterns," says Disha Bhavsar of Quirk Studio. "We were clear about steering away from touch-me-not accents and easily dirtied furniture that would make guests feel uncomfortable," adds Aditya. the duo was mindful of keeping the home distant from the fanfare and footlights of showbiz. The palette was pared back, the floor warmed with wood. Whites and pastels filled the blank spaces. "It channels a tranquil sanctuary," says co-founder Shivani Ajmera. What the home lacks in vibrancy, it makes up for in variety. Variously laid wooden panels underpin the entire house: Herringbone enlivens the living, dining and vanity areas, while the bedrooms don a diagonal pattern. An assortment of wallpapers – a botanical-print behind the bar, a palm-print beside the staircase – give the walls a lifelike quality. As we move through the home, it's clear that when Bhavsar and Ajmera say "sanctuary", they mean the modern, gilt-edged kind. – Vaishnavi Nayel Talawadekar
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