The Sentinel

Two world wars, dock explosions and now the attack by terrorists. Yet it still stands strong. The Taj is a symbol of Mumbai’s resurgence, says Zafar Hai

There’s a story about how Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata got the idea to build the Taj Mahal Hotel. They say he was denied entry into the whites-only Watson Hotel, but I think that’s not the real reason. I think he built the Taj to resuscitate Bombay after it was ravaged by the Great Plague of the 1890s. He wanted a class hotel — on par with the best in the world — that would help the city recover. In that sense, the Taj has been a symbol of resilience — something that was created as a reaction to rebuilding a devastated city. It is ironic that today, after the terror attacks, it will have to rebuilt in that same spirit.

The hotel has also withstood so much — two World Wars, the big explosion in the docks in 1930s, which must have surely shaken the building — but it has never been under attack the way it has been over the last few days. In our film, The Taj of Apollo Bunder, that was made in 2003 to commemorate the hotel’s centenary, we felt it would be good to give the Taj a human face. To tell the story through what the walls of the institution would have seen. So we decided to make the walls a character — played by actor Roshan Seth — who was modelled on a Swiss hotel manager, in coat tails, bow tie and fresh white carnation in his buttonhole every day.

The Taj has seen history pass like no other structure. This was partly because of its location on the harbour, close to the Gateway of India which was supposed to be the gateway of the country in the days of steamship travel. It was the point of all entries and exits from not just the city, but the entire country during the early years of the 20th century. The Taj witnessed remarkable events like the arrival of the future king and queen of Britain, and the exit of the empire, when the last ship, the Somerset Lighton, sailed out in 1947. It has witnessed two World Wars, and seen great entertainers perform here. For instance, there was a crooner called Amy Denton, who had an air of scandal about her. Her boyfriend was arrested for being a German spy during WWII, and she was also thought to be one. In the heyday of jazz, some of the greatest musicians played here. The Taj was also where ballroom dancing in India was born.

Then there was the story about a Russian count, on the run from the Bolsheviks, who joined the Tiaglet Ballet in Paris and came to the Taj with his wife to do cabaret dancing in the classical ballet style. The story goes that his wife was exceedingly beautiful, and the then manager of the Taj fell madly in love with her. This unrequited love drove him to jump off the fifth floor of the building.

During shooting, we also created the famous 1917 banquet in the ballroom. We set up the tables just as they would have been, and re-printed menu cards from that day. The banquet was in honour of the Maharaja of Bikaner when he was inducted as a member of the Imperial war cabinet, and was hosted by Ranjitsinhji, the Jamsad of Navanagar.

It was attended by 200 of the wealthiest princes of India at that time. I was spectacular. I didn't know a lot of things about the hotel till we began research. I didn’t know that Sarojini Naidu had a permanent suite here, or that Mohammed Ali Jinnah's wife, Rati, did too, to which she would retire after a fight with her husband. She even died here in 1929. Mountbatten's farewell speech before he left for England, was from the Taj. The Beatles stayed here, as did actor Gregory Peck, whose bed at the hotel had to lengthened to fit his frame. I didn’t know that the Taj was built by an Indian architect Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya, and English architect Chambers only took up the work after Vaidya's death in 1900. The myth about the hotel being built the wrong way around, is also not true.

To shoot a film in a running hotel was extremely difficult. But we had a very enjoyable three-four weeks while making the film. The Taj has never been closed for any long stretch of time, not even when the new tower was built. Today, it's an entirely different matter. There's a line with which the film closes, where Roshan, addressing Bombay, says: “Your love for me has remained steadfast. You think of me as belonging to you.”

This is true for many of us who have had anything to do with the Taj; we feel as though it belongs to us. I've had a relationship with the Taj since the 1970s, when we used to have all our meetings over tea at the Shamiana or the Sea Lounge. I had my wedding reception here. Which is why it was absolutely devastating to see it burn. We can be grateful that the external structure has survived the recent attack. But when you have deep affection for a building, you miss it for the time that its not there. It will be a poignant moment to step back through the doors when the hotel reopens.

As told to Labonita Ghosh

l_ghosh@dnaindia.net