While Shah Rukh Khan’s palatial home Mannat in Bandra has become a modern-day pilgrimage site for fans, few know that just next door stands another historic house—Kekee Manzil, once the beating heart of Bombay’s modern art movement.
The two homes, side by side on the Bandstand promenade, share more than just geography; they tell a story that connects glamour with genius, cinema with culture, and fame with the forgotten world of artists and exiles.
From Villa Vienna to Mannat: A House with a Past
Long before Mannat became SRK’s abode, the property was known as Villa Vienna, built in the late 19th century by Raja Bijai Sen of Mandi for his wife.
After his death, it was sold to Maneckji Batliwala, a Parsi gentleman whose grandson Kaikhushru Minocher “Kekoo” Gandhy would later change the course of Indian art history.
The Birth of Kekee Manzil
Next to Villa Vienna, Maneckji built another home, Kekee Manzil, named after young Kekoo.
Kekoo Gandhy’s life reads like a cultural chronicle of Bombay. In the 1930s and 40s, he befriended European émigrés like Walter and Käthe Langhammer, who had fled Nazi-occupied Austria and brought with them a passion for art.
Together, they nurtured a generation of Indian artists—from M.F. Husain and S.H. Raza to Tyeb Mehta—at a time when modern Indian art was struggling to find its place.
Kekoo Gandhy: The Visionary Behind Modern Indian Art
Kekoo co-founded Chemould Frames and later Gallery Chemould, India’s first commercial art gallery, and played a pivotal role in establishing the Jehangir Art Gallery and National Gallery of Modern Art.
His home, Kekee Manzil, became a salon of creativity, a space where young artists, refugees, and intellectuals mingled—a far cry from the celebrity glamour that surrounds its neighbour today.
The Changing Fortunes of Villa Vienna
Kekoo’s maternal grandfather, however, couldn’t keep Villa Vienna; it was passed down to his sister who ultimately sold it to a promoter.
Years later, a ‘Jawaan’ Bollywood actor named Shahrukh Khan would buy the property and transform it into what is now known as Mannat.
Thus, where Mannat now symbolises Bollywood’s dreams and stardom, Kekee Manzil stands quietly beside it: a timeless reminder of a Bombay that once nurtured art, ideas, and exiles who made India their muse.
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