THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

She’s created Gadar with her designs
Aradhika Sekhon

Though the latest feather in her cap are the sets she has helped design for a song sequence in film Gadar, the restoration of the famous Gaiety Theatre in Shimla to its former splendour was the first major project undertaken by Anita Bhatia, an interior designer now based in Chandigarh.

Though the task of renovating the Gaiety Theatre was daunting, the finished product speaks volumes about the minute detail and painstaking work that went into the project. Today, the rusty interiors, the shabby tavern, the dilapidated green room, all wear a new look and are thankfully without any jarring feature that might detract from it’s original 19th century look.

This achievement is all the more remarkable when one considers that it was Anita’s first major interiors job. Indeed, having done her degree in Home Science, her primary interest was in fashion designing. Thus far, Anita had been following her husband, who is in the Army, all over the country, holding small exhibitions in the places where he was posted. " My first commercial venture was designing and making baby sleeping bags", she recollects. " This was in Ahmadnagar. I had taken my 4-month-old daughter to the market, all swaddled up in this sleeping bag that I had designed. The owner of the shop where I was shopping was fascinated and gave me a bulk order for them right there and then."

Thereafter Anita started designing linen and baby dresses, holding exhibitions in Ahmadnagar, Wellington, Gwalior, Hisar, Pune, etc.

From dress designing to doing the interiors of a heritage building seemed to be a complete shift, but to Anita it made good sense. " I was always fond of doing interiors and in addition, I found that because of constant movement I wasn’t really being able to make a career of dress designing. I also felt that I shouldn’t limit my scope, so I did a few short courses in interior designing whenever I got the chance. In Shimla, I finally did a diploma course with NIFD."

The Gaiety project fell into Anita’s lap when the responsibility of it’s renovation was handed over to her husband, Pankaj Bhatia, by virtue of his being the secretary of the Army-led ADC (Amateur Dramatic Club). Anita jumped at the chance, and so excited was she at doing such a significant project, that she did it gratis. " We mobilised our own resources and hired the services of the local architects through an NGO, The Indian Environmental Society (IES), which had taken up the restoration work of the exterior." Says Pankaj. " We searched through the albums of the Amateur Dramatic Club that dated back to the Raj days and tried to keep the interiors as fresh and original as they used to be in the past."

Recollects Anita, " It wasn’t easy, often one would get the picture of a part of the original paneling in a photograph which recorded some theatre production and try to reproduce it on ground. By putting together such bits and pieces, one finally got the stage hall in shape. It was a very challenging job but I’m proud to have been associated with the restoration of a heritage building. Not everyone is lucky enough to get a chance like that."

Thus, thanks to the combined efforts of Anita and the IES, this legacy of the Raj lives on, though it’s lookalike, the Gaiety of London, was pulled down in 1890 and finally shut down in 1939. The Shimla Gaiety, however, celebrated it’s centenary in 1997 and is stillstaging plays . While the Gaiety project was in it’s finishing stages, Anita got involved with another project.

The production team of the film Gadar, which was scouting for authentic locations to shoot the period film, heard about the refurbished theatre. On checking it out, the team promptly decided to use it as a backdrop for the song picturised on Sunny Deol, Main nikla gaddi le ke. Anita was roped in by the director, Anil Sharma, to help out with designing the sets on Gaiety Theatre’s stage. Anita willingly gave valuable help and suggestions not only for designing the sets but also for costumes, hairstyles, dresses etc. For all the help rendered, the production team presented her with the huge white statue that she had admired among the film props. Smiles Anita, " I would have required a palace to accommodate that statue, so I presented it to the Gaiety Theatre, where it stands even today".

The Gaiety Theatre project may not have brought any lucre to Anita, but the prestige of being associated with it certainly opened the floodgates for her. Today, she’s doing interiors for hotels and restaurants, flats and farmhouses, landscaping and terrace gardens. Her speciality is the modular kitchen which, she claims, she can provide at extremely competitive rates. " I use the same accessories as the big companies do, but I use my own modules. While companies will provide modules of painted board, I give value for money by using aluminum sheets mounted on board to ensure waterproofing and insect-proofing."

Though Anita started operating in Chandigarh only in January this year, but she has more projects on hand than she can handle. " I take on only as many projects as I can personally execute", says the slender and petite Anita as she instructs the carpenters on her sites or discusses the merits of an evergreen to be placed in the corner of a garden with the mali.