I often joke that I have spent most of my career building worlds that people either inhabit for years or encounter for two seconds on screen. The tools are similar, but the pressures of these twin careers are not. My fascination with design started long before I knew it could be a profession. I grew up in a Gujarati family where I was constantly making things, whether miniature installations for Navratri, religious backdrops, stage sets for school productions or drawings for competitions. I was never the student who came alive in conventional academic subjects. Once someone put a pencil in my hand and ask me to create something, though, everything changed.

The first major validation arrived when I secured an All India Rank of 50 in the NIFT entrance examination. Suddenly it felt possible as a career path. My route into interiors was far from straightforward. For years, I worked in production design, first under Sabu Cyril and later independently. Sabu was a huge influence. I became fascinated by the idea that entire environments could be built solely to serve a story.

When I struck out on my own, I worked on films such as Go Goa Gone, Happy Ending, Dear Zindagi and SPYDER. I also worked on more than a thousand commercials and TV productions. People often underestimate how demanding advertising can be. A commercial might require an entire world to be conceived, designed and executed in a matter of days. You learn speed, adaptability and precision very quickly.

After nearly five years in production design, the turning point came unexpectedly when I was commissioned to design the office of filmmakers R Balki and Gauri Shinde. What started as a single project altered the direction of my career.

During the project, Alia Bhatt visited the office and responded strongly to the design. Not long afterwards, she entrusted me with designing her home. That project opened an entirely new chapter. One commission led to another and before long interior design had become a major part of my practice.

One of the biggest lessons came from discovering that homes are fundamentally different from film sets. A set exists to tell a story. A home exists for people to live their lives. On a film set, the narrative comes first. In a residence, the people become the narrative.

That sounds obvious now, but it required a significant shift in mindset. In production design, I was accustomed to creating highly immersive environments with strong personalities and unconventional ideas. In interiors, many clients initially wanted something safer. There was one early project that left me deeply dissatisfied because it looked pleasant enough but lacked any real character. I remember finishing it and realizing I never wanted to create generic spaces again.

That project became an important lesson. It forced me to define what kind of designer I wanted to be. Since then, I have approached every commission with the belief that a space should reveal something about the people connected to it. A home should not simply look attractive. It should possess an identity.

Ironically, the biggest challenge in moving from film sets to homes was not creativity but patience. Film production runs on relentless deadlines. Interiors demand long conversations, planning, collaboration and attention to how people actually live. I am fortunate to work with architects who help translate my ideas into technically rigorous spaces, while I push them to think beyond convention.

Whether I am working on a film, a commercial or a residence, the objective remains remarkably similar. I want people to feel something. The medium changes. The story changes. But my desire to create memorable worlds does not.

Vanity vans are easily one of the most intimate spaces for an artiste, reflecting their personal aesthetics and necessities. For Ranveer Singh, his vanity van needed to address his foremost requirement — that of a specialised gym so that he could adhere to his fitness regimen even when shooting. Of course, like everything associated with Singh, it had to come with a hint of zaniness. So, the actor requested celebrity interior designer Rupin Suchak to design a dedicated gym van with the Batman theme.

Suchak, who previously designed Alia Bhatt’s residence and office, Neetu Kapoor’s office and Sonakshi Sinha’s pad, had a tight deadline to meet. With Singh scheduled to head to Delhi for the shoot of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani in March this year, the interior designer had only a month to understand the actor’s needs and realise them. While Ajay Devgn had famously converted his van into a gym during the shoot of Singham Returns (2014), Suchak says Singh’s bespoke van has a more focused approach.

“A gym van has never been done before the way we did it. Minimalistic was the one-word brief. Ranveer was more than happy to adapt to my experiments as long as the utility was taken care of. The project had a practical approach. We only had 30 days as he had to travel with the van to Delhi. It would be pointless had he not got the gym van in time.”

Keeping in mind the dark palette of Batman, Suchak chose achromatic colour scheme. The emphasis was on two factors — to have a fuss-free space that could house different equipment, and to play with light to enhance the actor’s workout experience.

“The van is lit to highlight the workouts. The light catches each muscle and definition. The colour palette and design are balanced by the Barrisol light,” explains the designer.

Singh is thrilled about his state-of-the-art gym van. It took only a half-hour meeting with Suchak for the actor to be convinced about his vision. “He came in with such conviction that I knew my pet project would be in good hands. When I saw the final result, I was floored,” says the actor.