As the estranged wife of Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan, Sussanne Roshan, knows a thing or two about life under constant scrutiny.
The pair’s separation in December last year sent the press into speculation overdrive, drawing wild conclusions as to what caused their 13-year marriage to split and some mind-boggling settlement figures.
But she’s shown grace under fire, despite such personal upheaval in her life. When tabloid! caught up with her in Mumbai on Sunday morning, Roshan, the daughter of actor Sanjay Khan, was the poster child for unflappable determination.
“You know how you are as a person. The scrutiny that you are talking about doesn’t matter. Eventually you know your own truth. So you just have to keep going,” said Roshan. The mother of two boys, Hrehaan and Hridaan, who burst into the spotlight as the wife of Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik after a lavish fairytale wedding in Bengaluru in December 2000, showed no sign of bitterness. Nor did she indulge in any bitter blame game.
Their courtship was the stuff of Bollywood films. Film folkore has it that Hrithik fell in love with her when their eyes connected at a traffic signal in Mumbai. After four years of dating, he popped the question and they married soon after the release of his blockbuster debut Kaho Na … Pyaar Hai.
“Sometimes you have a great relationship with the person who was there in your life like my relationship with Hrithik, but it is just that two people sometimes don’t work out. That’s how life goes. And that doesn’t mean that you can’t move on,” said Roshan.
She’s clearly sticking to that memo.
She will be in Dubai on Saturday to unveil Naira, a bespoke 12-villa project in Goa, with a reception at her close friends Rekha and Mahesh Tourani’s residence in Emirates Hills. If this is her attempt to move away from the shadow of her successful husband, then she’s doing a good job of it. Her latest venture with Mumbai’s real estate company EMGEE Group and its CEO, Mudith Gupta, is an indication that she’s serious about her interior design dreams.
In 2011, she opened the swanky 14,000 square feet interior design store, The Charcoal Project, in Mumbai’s posh Andheri locality, and believes her latest partnership will cement her creative aspirations. The 35-year-old has also designed the homes of stars such as Priyanka Chopra and Rani Mukherjee.
“Naira has been put together with a lot of excitement and passion… My design company, The Charcoal Project, has taken on its interior design concepts and it will raise the bar of interior concept designs. I have put together a dream design team.”
Her creative group includes her best friend Gauri Khan, wife of Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan, and Martin Waller from the Andrew Martin interior design company. They will all be present for the big reveal in the UAE.
“We want this project to raise the bar and create a seven star property. These are independent sea-facing homes and it’s not a gated community. Every home owner will have a separate gate to enter and exit. It’s on top of a hill in Bambolim in Goa,” said Roshan, adding that a concierge service will be activated as soon as the owner reaches the beach destination.
“As soon as they land at the airport, they are taken care of by a chaperone of sorts. They will guide you on how to enjoy Goa,” said Roshan, adding this makes it perfect for wealthy Indian expatriates in Dubai to get a quick beach getaway. Roshan and her team will work towards creating a modern home, whose pricing begins at Rs100 million (Dh5.9 million).
“It will have a Californian influence, a modern, retro vibe to it,” said Roshan, who studied interior design at Brooks College in Long Beach, California. Her design philosophy is also a reflection of her personality, which comes across as refreshingly uncomplicated (during our chat, she was consistently polite and answered her phone on the first ring, making her an anomaly in Bollywood fraternity, known for its notorious tardiness).
“My design philosophy is pretty straightforward: it’s all in the details. It’s a simple thought but I believe that everything you do should be carefully looked at. My effort is to make a home feel warm… a home away from home. I want to make the owner feel special and exclusive because you spend the maximum time there. It’s your haven,” said Roshan.
But is it a good idea to mix business with pleasure? Roshan begs to differ when it comes to her BFF Gauri.
“Gauri is a very dear friend of mine for many years… She has a strong aesthetic value and is an extremely stylish person. So it would be an added benefit to all of us involved. So is Martin Waller’s involvement. These minds are interesting and diverse,” said Roshan.
Khan will look after the “artefact installation and curation” in the homes.
“Together, we will create a new language in design and redefine luxury,” said Roshan. While she considers herself privileged to be a Bollywood insider, she doesn’t attribute her interior design success to luck or having the right connections.
“Ultimately, it’s about how good you are. In the beginning, you may get by if you know the right people. But eventually, it’s about what work you do. That will speak and determine what level of success you reach. Interior design is not just about glamour, you have to be able to connect people with your designs… and always remember that an interior designer can never be egoistical. A designer should never sit back and say: ‘it’s my way or the highway’,” said Roshan.
In our phone conversation, it was clear that Roshan extended this principle to most facets of her life. She was warm yet firm. So how would she describe her current phase in life?
“I am on a creative mode and I am working very hard. I love what I do and I am very thankful for whatever God has blessed me with and I have immense gratitude for that. I am at a stage where I feel appreciative and grateful for what I have today.”
Did you know?
Naira in numbers
603: Square metre of each villa.
75: The distance in metres to the sea from the mansion.
2016: The year that Naira villas are due to be completed, after the April 2014 construction start.
QUOTE UNQUOTE
“I love what I do and it is not to prove any point to anyone. I just want to do good work,” said Roshan.
