Dharohar – A Voyage through 75 years.

​A wonderful event was organized at the Air India Building, Nariman Point, Mumbai on 27 November 2021. They had organized an exhibition of some of the art and artefacts from their fabulous collection in the ground and first floor of the building. Also on display were many examples of the great work done by the art studio and the publicity department of the airline. They had invited the Minister of Civil Aviation, and the CMD of Air India and other top brass was present along with eminent citizens of the art world and of Mumbai.

Click here to see event details 

The exhibition was curated by Dr. Meera Dass and the redoubtable Uttara Perekh was as usual the fountain of knowledge and anecdotes on the history of so many objects and creations. Vivek Matthai and I were happy to be invited and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. After an hour of enjoying the collection, the gathering moved to the wonderful open terrace and garden on the podium level where we were treated to a grand laser show on the façade of the massive building which was beamed live on a giant screen as it was being filmed by a drone.

​Some speeches later, they screened the truly great promotional film ‘To Serve is to Love’ commissioned by the airline in 1974. The audience enjoyed this National award winning masterpiece in rapt attention. We were very fortunate to have the film director, Zafar Hai, and his charming wife Colleen, who was an air hostess with Air India and who starred in the film with three of her colleagues. They met during the filming, and decided to get married. The organizers were also very graceful in ​acknowledging my help in lending the film for the screening, as the copy in our collection is perhaps the only surviving copy of the film. 

​The art collection with remain with the Government owned entity and survive sale of the airline to the Tatas. We all hope that the collection gets a dedicated museum to display and do justice to what is certainly the greatest corporate art collection in India, and perhaps the world.

Souvenir Air-India 2022 Calendar
Click here to see full calendar