Into The World Of Jimmy And Delna Mistry

The architect, interior designer, hotelier and proud innovator in the design space, and his wife welcome Hello! Into their palatial penthouse on top of della tower, in Mumbai’s dadar parsee colony. The impressive structure, harks back to heritage iranian design. We get a glimpse into the mind of a creative entrepreneur, who wishes the city of dreams had been developed with not just a commercial but cultural sensitivity

- Sangeeta Wadhwani

We see in your residential building, a great resurrection of Zoroastrian figures… like a re-owning of your heritage (such figures can only be seen around Fire Temples and old Parsee neighbourhoods like in Tardeo, etc). How proud are you of your Parsee roots?

Jimmy: “I’m super proud of my Parsee roots; I’ve been deeply invested in the community since the beginning. I started a Parsee resource group as a community NGO way back in 2006. I worked with the priest and his family to provide them with medical and educational support; we also started working with the youth of the community. My ‘Cultural Heritage Award’ was the turning point and got me fascinated with architecture – the simplicity, yet grandeur of architecture when I studied in Iran – was something completely different, and hence I decided to recreate Persian architecture from ancient Iran in this glorious tower in Dadar, Mumbai.”

Delna: “Yes! We all are very proud Zoroastrians! We try to include some value system in our kids, mainly, to try wearing their sudrehkasti on a regular basis, going to the Agiary, our fire temple, on all good occasions and as often as possible. We mostly try going as a family together.”

Your home has a grand, larger-than-life feel… how long did it take to put together and what are some truly special areas that you are particularly happy with?