8 Bollywood Celebrity Homes for Design Inspiration

Over a generations-spanning movie career that shot to superstardom with the 1988 hit Tezaab, it is only natural to expect Dixit to have accumulated well-wishers from all walks of life. But none was more unforgettable than the artist M.F. Husain (Maqbool Fida Husain), who was also one of the founding members of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group in the 1940s, right after India’s independence. Spellbound by her charm, he developed a movie, Gaja Gamini (2000), born entirely out of his admiration for her grace. But that was not enough for Husain who also took brush to canvas, immortalising Dixit as his eternal muse. Those paintings became the inspiration for Indian architect Apoorva Shroff (of Lyth Design) to develop the interior concept for Madhuri Dixit’s Mumbai home which she shares with her husband, Dr Shriram Madhav Nene and two boys. Click here for a tour of Madhuri Dixit’s art-filled Mumbai home.

3. Ananya Panday’s Home in Mumbai Is an Oasis of Calm Designed by Gauri Khan

Ananya Panday is pictured in her living room, which opens out to a small balcony on one side.

Where does young Bollywood star Ananya Panday go to escape the frenzy her latest project – Netflix’s new thriller, CTRL – has caused? Home, of course, but this time it’s not the one she shared with her parents actor Chunky Panday and Bhavana Pandey, the star of another TV phenomenon, Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives. Ananya Panday’s home in Mumbai – it’s her first time living on her own – is not your average starter home. It’s been designed by one of India’s leading interior designers (and Bollywood wife supreme), Gauri Khan.

When living at home with her parents, Ananya Panday often indulged in thoughts of what things she would do differently, in her own unique way, if she had her own place. “It seems so silly and small, but I wanted to buy my own cutlery and host people a certain way,” she says. Now seated in the living room of her new Mumbai home – a breezy one-bedroom apartment just a few storeys up from her parents’ place in Bandra – the 25-year-old actor tells us that this new acquisition happened quite naturally, as did getting its interiors done by Khan, a long-time family friend. Step inside Ananya Panday’s calm Mumbai apartment.

4. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s London Townhouse Is a Masterclass in Expat Home Decor

Silver elephants that were passed down from Sonam’s mother-in-law take pride of place in the jewel-toned living room. She combined them with furniture from Charles Zana, Rose Uniacke and Allegra Hicks for layered look.

Simon Upton

“When we first moved into this house, my husband and I slept on the floor on a mattress.” These are not words you would expect to hear from a global superstar and style icon, but Sonam Kapoor Ahuja has an endearing frankness about her that captured the hearts of a generation gasping for newness and authenticity. Her London home, tucked away in a handsome period townhouse in tony Notting Hill, is an amalgamation of the East and the West.

When Sonam started dating Anand Ahuja, a dashing fashion entrepreneur with serious style credentials of his own, he was already living in London. Over the course of their long-distance courtship, the idea that the couple would have one foot in India and the other in British capital had taken root. “When we met, Anand was living on Kensington Church Street and I just fell in love with the neighbourhood,” recalls Sonam. Situated on a leafy square, with access to a pristinely manicured private garden and grand windows that flood the home with London light, this is truly real estate heaven. “This house is not very far from where we lived when we were dating… a sense of family and community is abundant here.” With a clutch of friends living close by, the couple have founded their own Notting Hill Set.