Image Courtesy: Yogen Shah
Sussanne Roshan juggles motherhood, star wifehood, a hectic career in interior design, and more recently, is proprietor and “curator” of a truly eclectic concept design store, The Charcoal Project in Mumbai.
It is most appropriate to capture the multi-faceted Sussanne here, who few would suspect has a steely side to her. She confesses that the independent streak in her can be traced to the wisdom of her super-creative mother Zarine Khan, and a privileged life as a design student in Long Beach, California. “I have always marvelled at the grace and beauty with which my mum balanced her life. My attraction to the world of design felt inborn. When I was just five or six, I would go with her for site supervision on her interior design projects. On these visits, she would ask me to help her make choices from different colour palettes, and she would go along with my choices. That gave me a lot of confidence; she made me feel I was thinking in the right direction. Later, as I started developing my own views, she never imposed her ideas on me. It made me feel this is what I was meant to do.”
Sussanne could have continued to grow in this nurturing space, as the celeb kid with the readymade network whose life already had the ingredients of success. But at 17, she opted to go to an institution — Brooks College in Long Beach — to study for an Associate of Arts Degree in Interior Design. “I was very shy at that age, and nervous as I knew it would be a whole new world. There was not a single student from India there. And the most impactful thing for me was that it didn’t matter where you came from, what mattered was who you were as an individual, and who you were trying to become. I recall this design teacher telling us, ‘There’s no such thing as wrong design, if you can explain what you have done, then it’s correct!’”
How was her journey different from her mothers’ in this realm? While she had technical training, her mum functioned from a space of instinct and homegrown knowledge. “I definitely feel privileged to have had that chance for technical training in the field. When you see a space for the first time, you aren’t just thinking about how to decorate it, you are thinking of architectural design, the logistics of electrical planning, etc. You need to understand all that, to give your client the best possible solutions. Yes, in mum’s time you could reach high levels of career satisfaction without formal training, but she was operating in another era. Now, I feel if you aren’t constantly updating your knowledge, you can become redundant! I want to go and study some more, sign up for new courses. I sincerely believe you can never be too old to grow, change and learn. It’s essential.”
Talk to any of her sisters, and you learn to appreciate the value system behind their successes. Farah Khan Ali had disclosed in an interview a few years ago how their mother had told them the secret to a happy marriage and a happy existence, was to have an identity outside the home. And to always be well-turned-out, fit and desirable. Sussanne shed 30 kilos after the birth of her second baby, Hridhaan. In fact, while she may laugh at this now, it was she who paid for early dates with then childhood neighbour and friend, Hrithik Roshan. “We know each other from way back, before any great material success came into the picture. Our bond transcends glamourous things brought in by fame and wealth. Sometimes, I wonder if I had met him after he had become such a huge star, would our connection have been the same? I honestly don’t think so…”.
Point out that her close friend and occasional collaborator Gauri Khan had a similar equation with husband Shah Rukh Khan, and she agrees. “We were both fortunate to have met our partners young, and then to have grown together. I feel blessed to be among those lucky few. Today, though, some people marry young and then grow apart. I think you have to have a very forthright and honest friendship with your lover or your husband. This guides you to make the right choices. If that is not there, it can’t work. We’ve had 12 years of married life so far, and a connection that spans 17 years in totality!” she says.
Still, from the way Sussanne describes her daily schedule, it does seem that she has her own orbit, one that she is used to operating within, with or without the super-busy Hrithik. “I am up really early, my kids are up at 6.50 am, get ready to go to school, and once they leave at 7.45 am, I get into my ‘Things To Do’ list.”
“I try and work out in my home gym daily, in the morning, so that’s done for the day. (Since Hridhaan, she maintains her weight at 50 kilos). Then by 11.30 am latest, I am at the store, and I stay there till 3.30 or 4.00 pm, then head back home, hang out with my kids, and decide on the other things I need to do.”
“When I have to travel, I have schedules made for the kids. They are at a really lovely age right now, Hrehaan is six and Hridhaan is four. I learn new things all the time just looking at the world through their eyes. Only kids will tell you the whole truth about something. I don’t like being away from them for long, so if I must be somewhere, I make it a three-day trip at most. Only my Sundays are completely free... I just take off and do my own thing. So that’s how I live. I believe everything is possible in one lifetime if you really want to work it!”
Ironically for Sussanne, though she had learning experience, her career didn’t just take off. Because marriage came before all that. “My work actually grew very slowly. I was just married when I entered the field.
To be honest, I wasn’t so dedicated at that time. I was enjoying being with my husband, travelling with him. Strangely, it was when I conceived Hrehaan that I started thinking about what I love doing. And then, I got serious about work — not just as a star wife or daughter — but as someone trying to build a company, and a brand like The Charcoal Project. With age you get more mature, you understand what you need to achieve out of life. It just took a lot of time to get to that point,” she confesses.
Today, she is on a quiet rampage, unafraid to mix and match cultural elements, importing such outlandish artefacts as guerillas and gargoyles in a country still fond of its cannon of textiles, sculptures, its encyclopaedic roster of crafts and embellishments. “Homes are always a reflection of the people in them, my whole job is to understand the psychology of the family I am designing for, the world of design they’d like to live within, be happy and comfortable in.”
The floor staff at her store are quick to share that ‘madam’ has her favourite shopping stops for her rare collection of home accessories; Paris, New York, London. But ask Sussanne and she sounds a lot more vague: “I do travel a lot, and my spaces keep changing. I could be in Europe, I could be in a very quaint little town somewhere in France, or some remote place in England. In fact, I just came back from Bali, and felt a lot of things can be brought or developed from there. I don’t just pick up artefacts and transport them to the store… I like to get to know the local culture, chat with the craftspeople, and have a lot of involvement ‘curating’ a collection. I see my role here as a curator not just a retailer — someone who has an eye for larger-than-life objects. I am in the process of finalising more concept stores, which will help develop a more concept-driven approach to the world of interiors.”
What were some ooh-la-la moments brought about by her zealous commitment to this world, one can’t help but ask. “An unforgettable compliment came — not from any shopper here, or movie star — it came from Andrew Marten Waller, a design genius from New York who I had met way back when I was starting out. He has about 70 to 75 stores the world over. He told me ‘when I come to your store, it feels like it could be in New York city!’ I can’t ever forget that!” shares the glamourous Sussanne.
She has mastered the art of packing it all in. It would be best to close our conversation with something she shared earlier — “I still have a lot to achieve, but I am enormously grateful. I have a lot of gratitude for who I am, who all I know, and I am still taking baby steps to arrive at my vision. At the end of the day, I aim to be somebody consistently doing things beyond the usual expectations, someone super-committed to setting new standards in the field of interiors. It’s a struggle, because I am also a mother of two little kids, who are top priority, I am wife to a superstar, so I have to be social. And a major challenge we all face is to achieve what we want without hurting anyone. There is no point in hurrying, because then your success will be short-lived. One day, it will come tumbling down. I think it’s most important to just stay focussed and keep your clarity.”
We can hear the applause from your quiet legion of fans already, Sussanne!