FOUNDED IN 1934, KAMDAR LTD WAS BEHIND A LOT OF MUMBAI'S ART DECO INTERIORS OF THE TIME.PROPOSALS TO CLIENTS WERE MADE WITH THESE ARTISTIC WATERCOLOUR RENDERINGS.

On April 18, 1940, a splashy seven-page spread in The Times of India announced the opening of a grand art deco office building opposite Churchgate station in Bombay.

- TEXT: ABIGAIL MCGOWAN PHOTOS: EF MESSERSCHMIDT, FOR KAMDAR LTD

Built to house the Industrial and Prudential Assurance Company, it was surrounded by what are now deco icons: Eros Cinema (1938) across the street, Brabourne Stadium (1937) just to the west, with the apartment buildings fronting the Oval Maidan and Marine Drive only a few blocks away. Appropriate to that modern milieu, one of the first tenants in the building was the stylish interiors firm Kamdar Ltd. In an advertisement announcing its new showrooms, Kamdar Ltd promised readers “a striking display of furniture, tapestries, carpets, curtains, lights and ideas for mural decoration”, while also encouraging visits to the Industrial and Prudential Assurance Company offices, whose interiors the firm had handled. Kamdar was, the advertisement declared, “Bombay's foremost designers for comfortable modern living”.