Sussanne Khan calls herself a “victim of a curious mind”. And she believes it’s her insatiable curiosity that fuels her passion for design. She started out by designing high-profile homes but she has spread her wings and turned her attention to product and furniture design. “Design is a layering process of several thoughts and the way you communicate them is important,” says the reed-thin Sussanne.

Sussanne, 36, whose interior designing career took a back seat after her marriage to Bollywood hunk Hrithik Roshan in 2000, has returned to the working world with a bang. Ever since her well-documented break-up with Roshan, her life has revolved around her two children and all things related to design. She has just unveiled a new luxury line of furniture and lights for her sprawling home store, The Charcoal Project. She also has her hands full doing up high-profile luxury residences. Clearly, Sussanne, once looked upon as a glamorous star-wife who was usually spotted by her husband’s side, doesn’t want to even glance backwards. She proudly shows off the tattoo on her right hand which pretty much sums up her motto in life — ‘Follow your sunshine’.

It’s a typical working day packed with back-to-back appointments. But Sussanne visibly relaxes when her younger son Hridhaan’s class teacher calls to say that her son’s missing school identity card has been found. She calls him immediately to give him the good news. “I work around my kids’ schedules. I manage my work when they are busy at school,” she says settling down for a candid chatathon.

Dressed in a casual off-white tee and jeans, she cuts a pretty picture. Inside her office, the walls are lined with graphic art and bookshelves showcasing interior design books. People who know her say she has laser-like focus, a steely resolve and mental strength and she’s drawing from that to rebuild her life and ambitiously build her career.

Right now, she’s upbeat about her association with London-based celebrity designer Philippe Starck’s design-firm YOO (set up along with property entrepreneur John Hitchcox). She’s now brushing shoulders with design greats such as Jade Jagger, Marcel Wanders, Kelly Hoppen, Steve Leung and Starck himself.

The collaboration will see her taking her signature aesthetics to hotels, residences and other spaces across the world. Says Sussanne: “I had designed one of the show-flats for YOO in Pune developed by Panchshil Realty. They liked my design sensibility. As part of my portfolio with YOO, I have been made creative designer for their yet-to-be-launched property in India in the fourth quarter of this year.”

For designing the 5,500sqft Pune show-flat, Sussanne’s Goth-meets-Victorian style was peppered with bold prints, chandeliers, larger-than-life artefacts and leather and velvet upholstered furniture. She says, “In this show-flat I wanted to recreate the look of a vintage library that was complete with Andrew Martin vintage wallpaper and plush leather furniture and a chest of drawers.”

In the soon-to-be-launched YOO project in India too, Sussanne will be unleashing her European-meets-
Indian heritage design sensibilities. This year, she has more than a dozen design projects underway simultaneously across the country.

Sussanne, who set up her concept store, The Charcoal Project, in 2011, has just added to her lines of furniture, lights and artefacts. Set in the buzzing bylanes of Andheri in Mumbai, Sussanne’s sumptuous retail space sprawls across 14,000sqft and epitomises her design philosophy that’s all about a mix of industrial ‘shabby-chic’ with a vintage European touch.

The first level of her store has her prêt line of furniture consisting of sink-in sofas, coffee tables, dining tables and high-back chairs, while the ground level has brass artefacts by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, lights by Klove Studio and furniture by British designer Andrew Martin.

The showstoppers here include leather sofas, a King-Kong-esque, giant-sized metal gorilla and elaborate chandeliers. Sussanne’s prêt line of accessories and furniture starts at Rs 800 for small candle stands to Rs 1.75 lakh for the bigger sofas. The designer furniture and accessories are priced upwards of Rs 2 lakh.

Sussanne loves to work with a mix of metal, wood and natural fibres. “I like to stay away from bling as much as possible as I’m all for subtle luxury,” she says.

Prateek Jain, lighting designer and owner of the opulent Klove Studio in Delhi says of Sussanne’s design style: “Her store is undoubtedly one of the best in the country. Her style is classic yet contemporary that’s replete with Gothic elements.”

While her store is about luxury, her e-commerce site, The Home Label (owned by a company called Label Corp.), offers a wide range of home accessories for budget-conscious buyers. She adds 15 to 30 new products to this e-commerce site every month.

She happily helps customers pick accessories and styles. The must-have pieces include retro jars, printed ikat (fabric) cushion covers, photo frames, vintage bottles and tumblers. Prices start at Rs 300 and can go up to Rs 3,000.

The coming months will see her expanding her retail line on The Home Label that will include inexpensive and cheerful furniture for under Rs 50,000. The line will have beds and living room furniture like two-seaters and coffee tables. The products for the online store and her prêt line of furniture are designed by her team and manufactured at her workshop in Mumbai.

She has just wrapped up work on a super-exclusive, 12-villa project for real-estate major Emgee Group in Goa. Called Naira, it sits in the green hills of Bambolim in Goa. “These are flamboyant holiday homes reminiscent of ’60s and ’70s chic with lavish interiors and amenities,” she says.

With so many projects in hand and two demanding sons to look after, how does she create a work-life balance? “Juggling motherhood and work is tough but all working mothers eventually know how to do it,” she says, making light of her rushed lifestyle. Her face lights up at the mention of her two sons — Hrehaan, 9, and Hridhaan, 7.

After setting up a separate home with her two sons, a day in the life of Sussanne Khan involves juggling work and motherhood — in a way that’s made to look easy. “I’m up at 6.45am. After my sons leave for school by 7.40am I try to fit in a workout. I’m in office at my store by 10am. I shut myself off between 10.30am till 12.30pm, when I concentrate on my pencil drawings and sketches. After that, I meet my clients. I head back home at 5.30pm when I spend time with my kids and oversee their homework,” she says.

She remains unfazed about the controversies that refuse to die down after her split with Hrithik. She says firmly: “Anybody in the limelight has to face comments and intrusions. But one has to take it in a spirited way and not let rumours drag you down. As long as you know the truth, you can deal with it. Right now, I want to do my work quietly and elegantly.”

Sussanne reckons that she is genetically ‘design-tuned’. She and her two sisters Farah Ali Khan and Simone Arora grew up seeing their mother Zarine Khan designing star homes in the ’80s and ’90s.

At 17, she went to do a two-and-a-half-year course in interior design and architectural interiors at Brooks College in Long Beach, California. Her first interior design project at the age of 20 was for a couple in Thane near Mumbai and a bachelor pad in South Mumbai. She recalls, “Back then, textured walls were not a rage and I had to personally train the painters how to go about it.” She also designed the home of Rani Mukerji a few years back.

While she has inherited her mother’s flair for artistic designs, she has learnt the virtues of hard work and perseverance from her actor-father Sanjay Khan.

She has straightforward plans for the future — to expand her label and be a good mother to her kids. She is looking at opening new outlets in Pune and Delhi by the year-end.

Sussanne’s biggest strength has been to stay cool in sunshine or gloom. “Be positive. Count the good things that happen to you. Let life make plans for you,” she says with a smile that lights up her face.

Photographs courtesy: The Charcoal Project