When SRK couldn't afford to furnish Mannat

Brut India

"Listen, Gauri, why don't you become the designer of the house?" When Shah Rukh Khan was strapped for cash, had just fixed up their dilapidated house, and couldn't afford a designer...

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00:00We called one designer.

00:02The lunch that he served us, telling us how he designed this house, was way more than

00:06the salary I used to earn in a month.

00:31When we bought the house we live in now, it was way beyond our means.

00:37And being from Delhi, one was used to living in bungalows.

00:42One did not realize that Mumbai has a whole system where apartments are even more expensive

00:47and bigger.

00:48But we are not used to it.

00:49Not because I was very well off, it's just that everybody in Delhi seemed to have a bungalow.

00:54And we'd come from there and we used to live, actually, to the house next to Taj, right

00:59here, really.

01:00Which was my director's house, he lent it to us and said, you stay here as long as you're

01:05making films.

01:06We had not too much money, so whenever we, as soon as we mustered up some money, we said,

01:10we'll go and buy this bungalow.

01:12And it was way beyond our means.

01:13But we managed to buy it, which was one thing.

01:17And then you had to rebuild it because it was quite dilapidated and kind of broken.

01:25And then we didn't have money to furnish it.

01:28And of course, we called one designer.

01:31The lunch that he served us, telling us how we'll design this house, was way more than

01:35the salary I used to earn in a month.

01:38And we're like, this guy's going to charge a lot.

01:40So how do we do this house now?

01:42We bought it, what do we do with this?

01:45And then the only person to turn was, I said, listen, Gauri, you have little artistic talent.

01:49Why don't you become the designer of the house?

01:51So actually, mannat started like that.

01:54So whatever little monies we earned over years, we kept on buying small things.

01:58I remember we had gone down once even to South Africa, I think.

02:01And we had little money.

02:02And we bought the leather for the sofa that we'd put on.

02:06And all those small, small things we used to buy.

02:08At that time, when you traveled abroad, I think you got 100 pounds or some amount of

02:12money that you were allowed to carry from India.

02:15So it was taken only to buy a decoration piece.

02:17So it took us a while.

02:18And I think that training ground is what actually made her start designing.

02:22And then for her to start doing something at such a young age, not realizing, without

02:27a designer, I think that kind of helped her also to learn.

02:31And then from one thing to the other, she kept on designing stuff.

02:34And for me, it's very nice that I don't have to look for another designer.

02:41I can scream and shout at her, this is not nice.

02:45You should change this and all, which I've never done.

02:47I'm just joking.

02:48I just wanted to say it here in public.

02:50And it's just easier to discuss what we want.

02:54Because I also have a thing that things should be clean and nice.

02:57So I think she started with that whole aspect.

02:59And then she's gone on to design any and everything that we buy now.

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