Mumbai: Bandra
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Bandstand
Heritage buildings
Heena Khandelwal, March 7, 2025: The Indian Express
Actor Shah Rukh Khan and his family are moving to a temporary address in Bandra’s Pali Hill, as their iconic home Mannat, a Grade 2-B structure heritage building, undergoes renovations.
SRK and his interior designer wife Gauri Khan are adding two floors to Mannat’s annexe, increasing the built-up area by 616.02 sq metres. While many have been wondering what the renovated structure will look like, this is perhaps also a good time to rewind the clock and look at the mansion before it became Mannat.
Villa Vienna
There are various stories floating around on the Internet about Mannat. Debasish Chakraverty, a Mumbai-based history enthusiast who has been chronicling the past of Bandra and Santacruz, decided to dig deeper and penned down his findings in an essay titled ‘Mansion by the Sea: The History of Villa Vienna’ for the community newsletter Bandra Times in February 2024.
Clarifying that what he knows about Mannat comes from oral stories passed down over time, Chakraverty shared that the mansion was built in the late 1800s by Raja Bijai Sen, the Raja of Mandi (former princely state in present-day Himachal Pradesh), for one of his Ranis.
“Following Raja Bijai Sen’s death (in December 1902), the mansion was sold by the princely state to Perin Maneckji Batliwala of Girgaum in 1915. Perin Maneckji Batliwala named his newly acquired mansion “Villa Vienna” because of his fondness for Viennese music,” Chakraverty shared, adding that old-timers still prefer to call the building Villa Vienna.
Akshay Chavan, a Bandra-based anthropologist and historian, seconded that the mansion was likely built by Raja Bijai Sen. “It has been recorded that Raja Bijai Sen of Mandi owned a bungalow in Bandra,” said Chavan, adding that considering that the Raja died in 1902, the mansion must have been built in the 1880s-90s.
“A number of princely states like Patiala, Cambay, Mandi, Kutch and Gwalior had bungalows in Bandra, Juhu and Versova, primarily due to its proximity to the sea,” he said, adding, “It was common for old bungalows to be enlarged and renovated, once acquired by the new owners.”
For his essay, Chakraverty drew from conversations with long-time Bandra residents and the book ‘Bandra: Its Religious and Secular History’. “It was published in 1927, and is arguably the richest document of Bandra’s history, by renowned historian Braz Anthony Fernandes,” he said.
The house changed hands when Batliwala sold it to his sister Khurshedbai Sanjana and her husband, who were his business partners. As Khurshedbai had no children of her own, she willed the property to her sister Goolbanu. From Goolbanu, it passed to her son, Nariman Dubash.
“In the mid-1990s, Villa Vienna changed hands rapidly. It was apparently sold by Nariman Dubash to a builder, from whom businessman and film producer Bharat Shah bought it. As it lay in a state of disrepair in the late 1990s, it was finally acquired by its current owner and resident,” Chakraverty stated.
However, the Gandhy family, who live in Kekee Manzil, a heritage building adjacent to Mannat, tell a different tale. According to Adil Gandhy, Villa Vienna was, in fact, built by his father Kekoo Gandhy’s maternal grandfather, Maneckji Bottlewala — not Batliwala.
“Maneckji Bottlewala travelled to Europe in the 1920s and fell in love with Vienna. The neoclassical architectural revival in the late 18th and 19th centuries captured his imagination. Upon his return to Bombay, he purchased a plot of land next to the newly built Kekee Manzil, where his eldest daughter, Roshan (Kekoo’s mother), lived after her marriage. On this plot, he recreated his version of classical splendour, characterised by grandeur of scale, simplicity of geometric forms, and Doric columns on the façade, and named it Villa Vienna,” said Adil Gandhy, son of gallerist, collector, and art connoisseur Kekoo Gandhy, known for pioneering the promotion of Indian modern art.
The financial market crash of 1929 severely affected Bottlewala, as many of his assets were mortgaged to banks. By the 1930s, he was forced to sell Villa Vienna to his sister for an undisclosed sum. Upon her passing, it was bequeathed to her nephews, Nani and Maneck Dubash.
“Since both brothers lived in downtown Bombay, they rented it out to various families. Among the most notable tenants was film director Nitin Bose of Ganga Jumna fame,” shared Adil Gandhy, who vividly recalls playing in its lavish garden with Bose’s daughters, Reena and Neeta.
When Bose moved back to Calcutta, the house was rented by the Maharajah of Mandi, who occupied it in the mid-1960s. Adil Gandhy shared that his family recalls a grand wedding held at the mansion for the Maharajah’s daughter — an event that lasted a week and was considered one of the most extravagant of its time.
“After the Mandi family vacated, Villa Vienna was taken over by the Catholic Agnel Ashram for a period, and it even had a Christian cross attached to the apex,” he said, adding that the Dubash brothers retained ownership throughout. It was eventually sold to diamond merchant Bharat Shah. Shah Rukh Khan later acquired the property from him.
“It was a huge estate with tennis courts and garages at the back. Shah Rukh initially purchased only the front bungalow,” said Gandhy, adding that Shah later sold the rear portion to Khan, who then built an extension. While some believe the ‘M’ on Mannat’s glistening column stands for Mandi, Adil Gandhy said, “The monogram ‘M’ is for Maneckji, not Mandi or Mannat.”
When it comes to the architecture of the mansion, Chakraverty said Villa Vienna was based on a neo-classic structure named Villa La Rotonda, built just outside the town of Vicenza in northern Italy in the 1590s, and designed by the famous Italian architect Andrea Palladio. He said the identity of the designer, architect and builder (and even the exact year of construction) of Villa Vienna have proven difficult to trace.
The mansion, he shared, has appeared on the big screen in many movies over the years, including Dev Anand-starrer Taxi Driver, and SRK-starrer Yess Boss.
History of Bandra Bandstand
Mannat is located on Bandra Bandstand, a nearly 2-km stretch that runs parallel to the Arabian Sea from St Andrew’s Church to Land’s End. Its official name is Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Road, after Sir Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, a 19th century philanthropist.
“It was Jeejeebhoy who then at his own expense constructed what we today call the Bandra Bandstand. The road’s official name is Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Road to this date,” Arvind Ganacharya, a former history professor at Mumbai University, told The Indian Express.
Ganacharya added that once upon a time, the stretch was lined with bungalows owned mostly by Europeans and a few Parsis. “The Europeans were interested in the band culture and therefore, the evenings would see bands, including members from the European military and Goans who lived in the villages of Bandra, regularly playing music at a small-garden like place on this stretch. That is how the road got its popular name,” he said.
Heritage buildings of Bandra Bandstand
Not just Mannat, several heritage mansions lined Bandra Bandstand and the stretch beside it, HK Bhabha Road.
“Till late ‘70s and early ‘80s, there were a lot of mansions in this area, which have been lost over time,” Chakraverty told The Indian Express, adding that back then, people would refer to them as ‘mansions’ and not ‘bungalows’. “One of the grand ones was Bai Shirinbai Cama Convalescent Home. It was a beautiful Edwardian structure, over 120 years old, and was demolished right after the lockdown, in April 2022.”
Up on the hill, on Mount Mary Road, stood Godiwala Bungalow, now replaced by a building named Raheja Bay.
“Marine Mansion on BJ Road has been replaced by a building of the same name. A private bungalow called Rockdale on HK Bhabha Road, owned by Anil Kapoor’s sister-in-law’s husband, has been replaced by a new private building of the same name. Woodleigh on HK Bhabha Road is the present site of Sea Kist and Sea Glimpse buildings. Mary Lodge, a beautiful old mansion on HK Bhabha Road, was demolished and replaced with a row house called Basera. Deputy Bungalow on the corner of BJ Road & Kane Road has been replaced by a new building named Berket,” Chakraverty reeled off.
When asked why these heritage buildings were being lost, Chakraverty said there were multiple factors. “First, all these houses are joint family property. Second, it is extremely expensive to maintain such houses. And, third, if a builder is going to offer you a sum of Rs 100 or 200 crore, anyone would take it, so I don’t blame anyone.”
Benne
As in 2024
Heena Khandelwal, June 29, 2024: The Indian Express
Bangalore-born Akhil Iyer, founder-producer of The Artist Collective, who moved to Mumbai 11 years ago, decided to enter the world of hospitality to savour and serve crispy and buttery golden brown coloured benne dosa.
For many of us who have migrated to another city or country for better work opportunities, there’s always that one dish we can’t wait to have the minute we reach our hometown. But how far would you go to satiate your cravings?
Started in partnership with his wife, Shriya Narayan, a psychologist, Benne is a small ‘darshini’ style eatery — a quick-service format neighbourhood space that serves fresh, hot food prepared right in front of you — launched last month in Bandra.
In a short span of time, it has become the talk of the town and has attracted the likes of actor and mom-to-be Deepika Padukone — also a Bangalorean — who visited Benne with her actor-husband Ranveer Singh and their families.
It is no surprise then that the eatery, which stays open between 5pm and 11pm on weekdays and 7am to 11pm on Sundays, already sees long queues half an hour before it opens its doors.
The menu offers four varieties of dosa – benne plain dosa, benne masala dosa, benne podi plain dosa, and benne podi masala dosa.
“Benne means butter in Kannada. While some stories suggest the recipe comes from Davangere, a city in central Karnataka, which also uses butter as its base fat, ours is different,” shared Iyer, adding, “We offer a Bangalore-style benne dosa, which is thick, crispy from the outside, soft on the inside and has a golden brown colour to it.”
When asked what led to this venture, Iyer admitted missing the benne dosas of Bangalore and failing to find a single place in Mumbai that offered them the same, despite actively searching. He then began to convince Bangalore-based restaurateurs to bring them to Mumbai, but when nobody jumped on the idea, he decided to do it himself.
“I learned the art of making them from a dosa master who has a very successful thela (roadside stall) on Avenue Road in Bangalore,” he shared, adding, “The trials took about two months, using my kitchen as an R&D lab and consulting a series of chefs and people from Bangalore.”
Spread across 275sqft, including the kitchen, Benne has no seating area but benches for guests to keep their plates. Orders are placed through a self-service digital kiosk.
The menu offers four varieties of dosa — benne plain dosa, benne masala dosa, benne podi plain dosa, and benne podi masala dosa. We sampled the benne podi plain dosa (Rs 175), which was thick and crispy, smeared with gunpowder on its soft inner layer and topped with a dollop of white unsalted butter. It was served with green coriander-coconut and red tomato-onion chutneys. The dosa was so crispy and buttery this sambhar lover didn’t miss its absence much.
“The reason we don’t serve sambhar is primarily because that’s how it’s eaten in Bangalore. Also, it’s tricky to manage hot sambhar in this tiny space,” shared Iyer, adding that they have tied up with a dairy in Dadar for a steady supply of unsalted and unprocessed butter.
Benne has also introduced Iced Filter Coffee, which has gained a reputation for itself in a short span of time.
Next was our favorite, the benne masala dosa (Rs 175). It was coated with a delicious stone-ground kempur chutney—a thick paste of garlic, onion, and tomato—from inside and served with aalo paliya (the yellow aloo masala) and the same two chutneys on the side. We polished it off in no time. The idli vada (Rs 70), served in a pool of watery green coriander-coconut chutney didn’t stand out. We were, however, very impressed by the iced filter coffee (Rs 75), which has already earned a reputation for itself.
Although benne means butter, and this restaurant celebrates it, they are happy to make dosas in oil for vegans and offer coffee with oat milk.
In an industry where the failure rate supersedes success by a huge margin, we couldn’t resist asking what made Iyer jump onto this wagon. Iyer smiled and shared that almost everyone advised him against it, and advertising guru Prahlad Kakkar even said he wouldn’t recommend opening a restaurant to his worst enemy. But he still went ahead.
“It takes some amount of stupidity and naivety to do it. Plus, I am a romanticist who thinks from his heart. I knew it would be difficult and involve a lot of emotions, but I also knew that we would figure it out,” he shared, and immediately added, “We approached Benne with a lot of honesty. It was a calculated risk. I am also aware that everything—whether it is Instagram or how things have unfolded, whether it was Dia Mirza coming on day one or Deepika Ranveer or the love showered on us by fellow restaurateurs—has been a fluke!”
