We can browse through the photos of incredible celebrity homes and offices available on social media to understand the making of these spaces and get a peek into the minds of our favourite celebrities. But a smarter way to know more about their beautiful home and office interiors is to pick the brains of the designer behind them.
If you’re not familiar with the name Rupin Suchak, you won’t forget it once you’ve set eyes on Alia Bhatt’s home and office, Ranveer Singh’s The Dark Knight-inspired gym vanity, Huma Qureshi’s office, Sonakshi Sinha’s apartment, Kangana Ranaut's home, and Aparshakti Khurrana's residence.
An art director by profession and interior designer by passion, Rupin, who has over a decade’s experience in the field of design, has perfected the art of creating character-driven spaces using a mix of textiles, textures, patterns, and natural materials. He is the founder of Goiz Argi, a design company which specialises in art installation, production design, art direction, and interior design. So far, he has designed interiors for 36 residential, commercial, and office spaces — many of which have been for famous names.
Rupin forayed into the world of interior design post the Covid lockdown. Before that, he worked on the production design for films, television commercials, and advertisements. He has to his credit 1,000 television commercial sets, 680 ad films, and production design for nine feature films including Go Goa Gone, Padman, Dear Zindagi, Yeh Kaali Kaali Raatein and Happy Ending. And there are a few more in the pipeline.
In conversation with Zee Zest, the design expert talks about prominent trends, inspiration, designing for the stars (including his latest, which was for Kangana Ranaut), the strangest request he’s ever received, and tips to keep in mind for multifunctional spaces.
Read the edited excerpts below:
How would you describe your overall aesthetic? And where do you find inspiration from?
I always keep my signature style unaltered. There must be a striking element in every space I create - a Do-It-Yourself (DIY). Human touch is important to my spaces. It could be anything from murals, restored furniture units, recycled art pieces, and commissioned artefacts, to the use of materials that heavily rely on sustainable design.
What are some prominent design trends that have caught your eye?
The exploration of shapes and breaking of stereotypical structures is what I think should be the way forward. Stepping into the future is what I see as a major design trend in the coming years.
How do you differentiate your projects while staying ‘on-trend’?
My projects, in some way, find connection with the clients. There is an emotional connection that I have seen each time we have presented or delivered a project. I think the ‘on-trend’ word is not something I set as a goal for project execution. If it somehow happens to be in trend, great.
Ranveer Singh's The Dark Knight-inspired gym vanity was jaw-dropping. How was it designing the space and what are its key highlights?
A ‘gym on wheels’ has never been done before the way we have done it. Minimalistic was the brief by Ranveer. He was more than happy to adapt to my experiments if the utility was addressed correctly. It was a very practical approach to the entire project which combined Ranveer’s brief and my unconventional design ideas.
There was a sequence of events during the design process - we were always trying to achieve a continuous ceiling of light and a mirrored back wall to give the impression of infinity as the space was too compact. Standing in the space during construction, we were struck by the stage set quality and its closeness to Batman’s garage in The Dark Knight.
What are some of your favourite elements from the celebrity projects you’ve worked on so far?
Kangana’s [Ranaut] home in Khar, Mumbai, has been my special project to date. The texture, the treatment, the layout, colours, shapes incorporated, bespoke furniture - everything has my heart.
It’s a very special project because it turned out way more beautiful than we imagined. All thanks to Kangana for trusting us so much for the project. There are many elements that I love from this house, especially, the flooring and wall treatment. Another project element that is close to my heart is the exploded wall that’s almost made as an art installation at Aparshakti’s [Khurrana] residence in Mumbai.
Take us through your design process.
Design is an evolving process for me. Be it my sets or interior spaces, I constantly like to grow with elements and style. My process of work is simple - I sketch some interesting elements that I could bring out in the space. Then I have a team of talented architects go through my ideas to see how they stand at the execution level. We then draft a few hyper-realistic 3D renders of the space and that becomes a starting point for any given project.
What’s the strangest request you’ve ever received from a client?
To incorporate a urinal in a power bathroom because when friends party, they forget to lift the seat cover and that’s not what ladies would like. Hahaha!
What is your favourite project to date and why?
Kangana’s home is my favourite project to date. I think with this project I have literally opened my wings completely in this field. Earlier, I used to be a bit reluctant in my approach as it was an undiscovered field for me. It has everything that one can ever dream of in terms of interior design.
What are you working on currently?
We have a few celebrity vanity vans that we are executing. We are doing a couple of residential interior projects for director Anubhav Sinha and producer Rajesh Bahl. In addition, we are also working on commercial spaces and movie sets including Yudhra and Jee Lei Zara for Excel Entertainment.
With so much innovation in the way we live, how do you envision the future of interior design?
I think we could easily see a massive breakthrough in a lot of materials that could assemble to form spaces and bring them alive in no time. It is essential we innovate to reduce the time frame and waste of material.
Tips for creating an office space at home
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