Synchronised Sensibilities

One irrelevant question: What is the best part about being Bollywood superstar, Hrithik Roshan’s wife?

Relevant answer to irrelevant question: It is just about the love and appreciation that you receive from all the fans. When I see the way they react to him, I think, this is a blessing.

And the worst part?

Nothing…no, nothing!

Sussanne Roshan is poised in various shades of green, unconventionally matched or clashed, in the large airy former mill area that includes furnishings corporate, Zeba’s workplace and store. A Chopard watch and Prada’s multi-hued handbag embellish her presence with quiet nonchalance. She is busy designing a line of soft furnishings with Zeba scion Krsna Mehta, a veteran already in the world of interiors. They celebrate their artistic coming together in a trademark brand of cushions, throw overs, dress-up bed linen, that promise to be exclusive, innovative and meant for the connoisseur of interiors.

Sussanne remembers as a three-year-old, tagging along with her mother, Zarine Khan, on sites and homes, when she launched into her business of designing interiors. Magazines covering fabulous homes and gardens lay all over the house. “I was very curious as a child and my mother tells me that I was very good with colour and co-ordination, even as a little girl.” On her mother’s insistence, Sussanne specialised in interiors at Brooks College, LA. “It was a really intensive course,” she remembers. “It extended to planning architectural interiors, space planning, maximising space….”

Much later, furnishing her own home, she discovered a kindred soul in the deceptively flamboyant, workaholic designer, Krsna. “I did not see just an ambitious man trying to make money. He was so much like me. He is very creative. My work has never been an ambition thing for me – more a creative, passionate thing. Being the best was never a criterion…I liked to just work in a simple way.” Sussanne had been working with her mother with interiors but gave it up when she got married.

“My husband has always been very supportive. He could see the love I had for this…” says Sussanne. “He would say to me, ‘Don’t be one of those girls who just sits at home. Be a working woman’. So, when I had everything organised with my life, I decided this was the time to start.” Krsna, who had studied in New York, decided that it is ‘a very global style of thinking to collaborate’ and here they are.