“Nilaya Anthology is our version of the NCPA or NMACC,” explains Pavitra Rajaram, design director of Asian Paints, referencing Mumbai’s two major cultural institutions as a point of comparison to the company’s newly opened luxury design mecca in the heart of the city. It is being called the most ambitious interior design showroom in the country, and is spread across 100,000 sq.ft., functioning as a cavernous one-stop shop for décor.
Its scale alone, bang in the city centre, in a metropolis starved for space, is awe-inspiring. Currently home to 92 makers from India and around the world, it has celebrated Indian brands such as Vikram Goyal Studio, Jaipur Rugs and Kashmir Loom alongside reputed international ones from Europe, Asia and Africa.
Pavitra Rajaram
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Nilaya Anthology
Also debuting in India is pioneering design curator Nina Yasher, who heads Milan’s storied Nilufar gallery, with a mix of vintage and contemporary furniture pieces. Visitors are already flocking to this address in Mumbai’s mill district, for everything from kitchen and bath inspiration to art, lighting, carpets, furniture and plants.
“This is a first for India,” says designer Goyal, who has successfully updated Indian brass and metalwork heritage for contemporary living. “It is an incredible opportunity to present the evolving narrative of Indian craftsmanship on home ground since we aim to highlight how centuries-old techniques can hold their place in modern spaces while continuing to innovate.”
Silken Passage by Vikram Goyal Studio at Nilaya Anthology
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Nilaya Anthology
Museum of design
Architect Rooshad Shroff, who created the vast space, juxtaposing large open areas with smaller rooms spread across two floors, tied together with a sweeping ramp and replete with a conservatory, says he was keen on not creating a mall experience. “I was keen to push the idea of a museum where you go from one room to the other and yet there is a linkage to allow individual brands to represent themselves within the space,” he says.
Orangery at Nilaya Anthology
| Photo Credit:
Hashim Badani
As one wanders through the space, rooms filled with tableware to objects to carpets to candles to textiles unveil themselves. “It’s like you’re transported into a dramatic Grand Bazaar-like space in Istanbul and Mumbai’s answer to the legendary luxury home furnishings store ABC Carpet and Home in New York City,” observes Gaurav Bhatia, luxury specialist and founder of Art-chives India. Where else will one find pieces by Hida Sangyo, a century-old Japanese wood furniture maker, or art from Sabyasachi Art Foundation, which is debuting at Nilaya and will be permanently ensconced here. At the launch, works by artist-in-residence Atish Mukherjee — priced from ₹13.5 lakh to ₹52 lakh – were showcased and all the paintings sold out in a day.
From Sabyasachi Art Foundation
| Photo Credit:
Prachi Damle
Architect Rooshad Shroff says
“Two years ago, when Asian Paints approached me, the brief wasn’t fixed but they were clear that the two spaces – one a 40,000 sq ft warehouse space with the double height and a pitched roof and one a 55,000 sq ft space, which is a ground plus one story– would be distinctive.” He went on to visualise the former as the “Heart”, with shared gallery spaces and a section for curated objects called the Shop House. The latter, the “Mind,” had a mix of foreign brands. “We had to divide the space in such a way so as not to lose its massive volume. The company also wanted people to be welcomed into a massive conservatory or orangery with a skylit roof to allow natural light. The ramp connects all this and is almost like a promenade, its exterior clad in 20,000 terracotta coloured ceramic tiles.”
Rooshad Shroff
| Photo Credit:
Neville Sukhia
Hub for architects
“It’s not just a retail space, it is a cultural catalyst and a storytelling experience,” explains Amit Syngle, MD and CEO of Asian Paints. He has been expanding the brand’s footprint to include design and cultural experiments. Meanwhile, Rajaram describes Nilaya (meaning dwelling in Sanskrit) Anthology as “a destination for design” and hopes it will become a space for the community to experience art, design and culture. Plans include a co-working space for architects and interior designers to meet clients, a material library containing over 100 materials curated by Rajaram and her team, including Tanish Malji and Maithili Goradia, and a café and a restaurant run by Indian Accent. Cultural events including music, dance and theatre will be hosted throughout the year.
Nilaya Anthology
| Photo Credit:
Hashim Badani
Construction surge
As Indian cities experience a building boom — Mumbai alone saw 154 new skyscrapers over 40 floors built between 2019 and 2023, which is expected to rise by 34% over the next five years — the interior design trade is set to explode. Research by IMARC estimates that the interiors market size will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.5%, to reach US $71 billion by 2033. And while a recent report by U.S. venture capital firm Blume Venture stated that a billion Indians have no discretionary spending power, 140 million Indians are consuming, and within that group, the wealthy are getting wealthier. Just look at the Indian art auction market, for example, which has doubled in the past five years. Asian Paints hopes to tap into that segment, as it transforms increasingly into a luxury design company, supporting, among other things, consumer design shows across the country.
Inside Nilaya Anthology
| Photo Credit:
Hashim Badani
Under one expansive roof
Post the pandemic, the company recognised a gap in the super premium home design space. “It was so fragmented, you had to go somewhere to get a beautiful light, and somewhere for a chair, or a carpet elsewhere,” she explains. Rajaram has been curating and commissioning pieces for Nilaya since the project’s inception two years ago, but in her head she’s been doing it all her life.
Previously lead designer at luxury retail brand Good Earth, her mind is a veritable filing cabinet for notable crafts and product makers from around the world. Of the many items she loves are the ceramics from Cristabel Mcgreevy, whose works she first saw in London, and the upcycled Shalini quilts made from leftover silk yarns in Maheshwar, a place she first visited 25 years ago with Sally Holkar of Rehwa and Women’s Weave collective.
Glassware from Zafferano and Polspotten
| Photo Credit:
Rema Chaudhary
Why not fully Indian?
Notably, in the era of digital shopping and growing AI-enabled technology, Nilaya is betting that such a large physical space offers a unique value proposition. But couldn’t Nilaya have been a completely Indian brand destination? Bengaluru-based interior decorator Vinita Chaitanya observes that while the concept of a design destination is much-needed, it could easily have been full of Indian design and craft alone. “When one goes to European fairs like Salone del Mobile, it is a platform for European brands,” she says, and continues, “Why could this have not been a platform and a completely Indian design destination because we have incredible craftsmanship and product designers and so much to choose from?”
Cassina at Nilaya Anthology
| Photo Credit:
Hashim Badani
Rajaram says Nilaya consciously wanted to offer an equal platform to show international and Indian designers working side by side to foster a language of design transcending geographic division. “I wanted to bring people together who are grouped by philosophy rather than where they come from, to showcase global craft at the very highest level of quality and of experience. Everything is small batch and artisanal. We have ceramic artists from the U.K., basket weavers from Ghana, works from Indonesia to within India, from Nagaland and Manipur. It’s the coming together of ideas,” she adds.
Her advice to shoppers is to slow down, not just come in and transact. “Luxury is about the ability to pause and experience, and what is more luxurious than entering through a beautiful garden in the middle of this busy metropolis?”
The writer is a Mumbai-based journalist and author.
Published – March 21, 2025 01:08 pm IST
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