New Delhi: Hearth is no longer the home. For millions of Indians living in cities across the country, home is where the gadget
is.
Smart homes, in which everything right from the curtains, kitchen ware, fitness corner, air conditioners to the cosy little private theatre in the basement springs to life at the click of a switch, is the in thing in India now.
The buzzwords in Indian homes are greater technological awareness, finer aesthetics and heightened concern for the environment. Almost all home appliances in the market now are designed to save power.
According to interior stylists, the booming economy, rising disposable incomes and increased stress and 24X 7 work hours have turned Indians into complete homebodies. They prefer to spend as much time as possible at home. Consequently, homes have become microcosms of what luxury hotspots outside have to offer: quality entertainment, holistic health services, gourmet cuisine, high-end home amenities and accessories matched by cutting edge technology.
The bottom line is de-stressing without compromising on time.
"Indian homes are becoming smart. High net worth individuals are bringing five-star amenities of hotels like sophisticated home theatres, expensive spas for rejuvenation and relaxation, accessories like ultra-luxury beds and the latest electronic gadgets into their homes,” Siddharth Shetty, managing director of a Mumbai-based company, Evavo Wellness, said. His is the country’s first wellness firm that has brought a host of Shiatsu-based mechano-therapy products, based on the ancient therapy from Japan, to India.
However, the hottest products in lifestyle marts across India are
automated curtains or glystro, which operate either by wired switches, home automation systems or remote controlled devices. Some of them also computer-generated and can be operated from a distance of 20 metres. Automatic curtains allow the user to open and close curtains manually without damaging the system or fabric.
"With the number of working couples on the rise, automated home solutions have become the need of the hour. Since we live in a digital age, it is only natural that some solutions need to be available at the tip of your finger,” Emmanuel Contagel, general manager of the French home product company, Somfy Ltd, told this writer.
Somfy specialises in automated blind management systems for Indian homes. According to Contagel, climate is a major constraint in India and only an intelligent home can reap the benefits of Indian climate — by using sunlight as an alternative source of energy and electronic gadgets to control the harmful spin-offs of Indian climatic extremes.
The company, which is now looking beyond metros after 10 years In India, has found a ready market for its automatic solar-protection curtains, blinds, shutters and awnings in Tier II cities like Pune and Chandigarh. The company’s business has grown by about 30 per cent in the last five years.
Automated and solar protection curtains, according to Contagel, can save up to 40 per cent energy because they reduce the use of air conditioners at home, Contagel said.
Renu Bansal (name changed), wife of a Mumbai-based businessman, has a room on the second floor of her villa in Mumbai dedicated to a home theatre. “We built it last year. The experience of watching a movie in a home theatre is amazing,” says Bansal. The theatre, which resembles a mini PVR facility, is done up in red, black and beige and fitted with a projector, sound processor and proper. The seats are PVR gold class.
“It can seat 11 people,” Bansal said. The theatre was built by Delhi-based interior designer Himanshu Kumar. His company, Mini Theatres, designs home theatres across metros in the country and even for homes in south Asia.
The price of his mini theatre fitted with a cloth screen, sophisticated sound systems or listening rooms for the right acoustics, DVD projection facility, plush seats and matching interiors range from Rs 120,000 onwards. It sometimes goes up to Rs 1 million, depending on the kind of space Kumar has to convert into a theatre and the accessories.
Mini Theatres, according to Kumar, is one of the fastest growing home theatre designing firms in India. “The first theatre that I made was around 16 years ago in Ahmedabad in 1992 where we converted the basement of a bungalow into a theatre. It took us seven months to build it and since then we have never looked back,” Kumar said.
In 2007-2008, Kumar has designed more than 25 home theatres in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune Chandigarh and Gurgaon. “Almost every villa or bungalow in Delhi and Mumbai now has basement space which cane be converted into a mini theatre,” says Kumar
Home theatres have changed the nature of entertainment in the country. “You can have all comforts of a multiplex or a PVR Cineplex at home without having to brave the traffic and the crowd outside — it’s a boon for those like us who are always constrained for time,” Atul Kapoor, a Mumbai-based exporter said. His catches up with all the latest releases at his mini theatre at home.
A home spa saves Delhi-based executive Milind Arora at least six hours that he used to spend in the gym every week. Arora can keep a tab on his workstation, even while enjoying a rub on his Shiatsu massage chair.
--Madhusree Chatterjee and Jay Akbar