Step inside Boman Irani’s ‘noisy, full and loving’ Mumbai home with an old-world charm
Boman Irani’s three-bedroom apartment in Mumbai has an old-world charm, with paintings and artefacts personally sourced by the actor and his wife, Zenobia Irani.
Boman Irani has been living in a three-bedroom apartment in Mumbai with his wife Zenobia Irani for more than a decade now. In 2019, he gave everyone a virtual tour of their home in an episode of Asian Paints Where The Heart Is.
At the time Boman purchased the apartment, he was looking for a smaller home, as a three-bedroom flat was out of his budget. However, Anil Kapoor encouraged him to buy it, telling him that he could buy furniture later but not increase the square footage of his home.
“That was kind of the time I signed Munna Bhai MBBS. So I started calculating how much my EMI would be and I was muttering to myself for weeks. Anil Kapoor saw me on the sets and said, ‘Tu kya sochta hai yaar (What are you thinking)?’ I said, ‘Nahi yaar, I am falling short big-time on buying a flat.’ He said, ‘Just buy it.’ I said I don’t have the money and he said, ‘Paise aa jayenge (Money will come). You can’t buy square feet (later). You can buy furniture. Sleep on the floor but buy the flat.’ And that's how we ended up buying this place which has become our home, friend, mother, whatever you would like to call it for about 14 years now,” he said.
On being asked to describe his home in three words, Boman called it ‘noisy, full and loving’. He said that he wanted their living room walls to be painted a light blue but Zenobia thought it would be ‘very dull’. He requested her for many years and suddenly, one day, she told him that they should paint it the colour of his choice. “I asked, ‘Why? What happened?’ She said, ‘I think you are right.’ But after three different paint jobs,” he laughed, adding, “Good colour pops better on this colour.”
Boman and Zenobia’s home has an old-world charm to it, and all the artefacts and paintings have been sourced by them personally. If one of them likes a painting or piece of furniture and the other does not, it does not come into their home. However, they are mostly in agreement, they said.
Boman also showed everyone his ‘sanctuary’, where he comes to watch films, read and write. He also gave a peek into his extensive DVD collection. He said that he spent ‘years and years and years’ building up his collection of films.
Meanwhile, Boman will be seen next on the big screen in Kabir Khan’s upcoming sports drama 83, starring Ranveer Singh as former cricketer Kapil Dev. The film has been delayed several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was finally slated for a theatrical release this June but has been pushed yet again.
