At a discussion with prominent architects and interior designers, Sussanne Khan spoke about how celebrity designers need to prove themselves and tackle sceptics. By Sharang Bhaskaran
Sussanne Khan, always known to have been a Bollywood superstar wife is also an accomplished interior designer and a successful business woman with her own interior design studio in Mumbai, The Charcoal Project. Khan, who was in the city at the WADe Awards honouring women architects and designers in India, spoke at a discussion on the challenges of being a celebrity interior designer with her mother, Zarine Khan.
Khan pointed out that though a celebrity status can open a lot of doors and bring some of the best clientele, the reputation of a designer, at the end of the day, rests solely on your hard work, dedication and how well you do your job. “Nothing else matters besides that. When you are a public figure and also a celebrity, trying to create a place for yourself professionally, people sometimes do not take you seriously and tend to write you off. At such times, it’s just better to do your job the best way you can. Nothing silences your critics like the way your success does,” she said. And successful she has indeed been, with a portfolio that includes residences of celebrities and corporate honchos, offices, retail and outdoor spaces, hotels and collaborating with some renowned designers in the country to create a designer line of home decor products.
Through her impeccable style of and knowledge of world art, Khan has created a niche for herself as a designer and a force to reckon with not only in the country, but internationally as well. last year, she was the toast of the designing world when she was roped in to be a part of a team of designers by YOO, an internationally renowned design company in london, for their first project in India and is now one of the creative directors heading the firm’s foray into the Indian designing circuit.
With her mother, also an interior designer, it’s only natural that design has been her lifelong passion. After obtaining an art degree in interior design from Brooks College, California, in the 90s, Khan has comfortably straddled the world of fusion architecture, interior design and original product design for the last 15 years. During the initial years of her marriage to actor Hrithik Roshan and being a mother, her designing work took a backseat and she only took on select projects while working with her mother’s design firm. But soon, her passion for designing led her to start her own designing studio in 2011 and creating her own unique brand of style and designs.
The Charcoal Project, a concept store in Mumbai that houses home décor and styling products designed by Khan along with other designers and artists, captures the essence of her ‘high end chic’ style of designing, as she prefers to put it. She lends a unique sensibility to her projects. “You will find diverse influences in my work. For instance, Mughal architectural elements will coalesce with European references.
When an inherently local aesthetic is blended with a global sensibility, the narrative throws up surprises. Contrasts lend drama to design.” Whether it is her home store, or the interiors she has designed for Bollywood celebrities and corporate personalities, Khan goes for an interplay of contrasts. “I love to combine the yin and the yang. People see my petite form and assume my designs to be ultra-feminine. But androgyny appeals to me. Masculine patterns, substantial use of metals, bold prints, rough edges and exposed grains of wood are repetitive features in my work. They are fused with feminine touches,” she added.
She was also bestowed with the Best Young Designer Award at the event and she could not be more happy. Ecstatic with joy she said, “It is indeed an honour to be appreciated and awarded for your work by such a prestigious organisation to be one among such illustrious women architects and designers.” So what’s next for the star designer and her design studioIJ “For now, we are working towards making The Charcoal Project not just a big name in the Indian interior design market, but internationally as well,” she summed up.