Designed by Sonal Choudhry of Crow’s Nest, the design appears whimsical at first glance but reveals a carefully crafted expression of the company’s desired brand positioning on closer examination. The 2,400 square feet office of Bang Bang is a contemporary, informal workplace and is studded with visual metaphors throughout the space, emphasizing the quirkiness of the design. The office also features an autorickshaw miniature at the reception, depicting a hackneyed cliché of Mumbai.
Bang Bang’s office design reflects its business approach. It is designed as a resolutely urban and global workplace. The design features minimal interference with the fundamental geometry of the space. Sliding doors were inserted throughout to maximize space without altering walls and maximum attention was paid towards framing the space for its actors, just as one would conceive a production set.
White desks and walls and open-plan furniture are included as part of a deliberate attempt to foster a contemporary work environment in which people face each other rather than facing walls. Bang Bang’s producers share a table without any partitions. The company is attempting to introduce the common working style of no partitions, prevalent in Europe, in India, where eye-level partitions often separate co-workers. Surfaces in the office design are kept largely neutral. Select accessories, such as graphic prints and a yellow coffee machine, add vibrancy without overshadowing the space.
The designer has also drawn on the personalities of Bang Bang’s founders Roopak Saluja and Kirk Dias to create customized spaces for them. The walls in Saluja’s attic-style office were painted cobalt blue and lined with prints of comic hero Tintin. Saluja’s storage units were also specifically designed to accommodate his multiple gadgets, documents and books in an accessible and elegant manner. Curios from Mumbai’s second-hand markets were incorporated to serve as tongue-in-cheek metaphors.
In Dias’ office, a 1970s refrigerator functions as a filing cabinet for ideas that he wants to ‘put into cold storage’. The bathtub in the conference room, which acts as a table with a glass tabletop, is incorporated to act as a conversation piece. A tour itinerary of the legendary rock band, ‘The Rolling Stones’, was printed on the sofa upholstery in Dias’s room, with cushions having prints of hairstyles from the 1970s.
The estimated cost of the entire office interior fitout of Bang Bang films is INR20 lakh ($43,366).
