Towering Insult in Mumbai
A 27-story concrete tower in Mumbai is lying unused and abandoned because its billionaire owners believe moving in will bring them bad luck. The billion-dollar “house” is said to have fallen foul of vastu shastra – an obscure Hindu version of feng shui.
Certainly the property, featuring six floors of parking, nine elevator banks, three helipads, a four-story open garden, health club, swimming pool, 50-seat theater, and cooling “snow” room, for starters, is comfortable enough, but according to reports, the Ambani family is concerned the building fails to conform with the ancient Indian architectural principles of vastu shastra, and has refused to move in for fear the home will curse them with bad luck.
Vastu, a philosophy that guides Hindu temple architecture, emphasises the importance of facing the rising sun – and despite the staggering sum spent on Antilia the building’s eastern side does not have enough windows or other openings to let residents receive sufficient morning light.
Film screenings have been staged in its state-of-the-art theatre and dinners held in its grand ballroom, served by staff trained by the luxury Oberoi hotel chain, but its owners return at the end of each party to their former ancestral home, never staying the night. Instead of moving into their dream home, the Ambanis continue to stay in the more modest, 14-storey apartment tower at the south end of the city that they share, on different floors, with the rest of their extended family.
The world’s most expensive home, built for India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani – ranked by Forbes as the ninth wealthiest person in the world with a fortune of $27billion, has dominated the Mumbai skyline since being completed last year. It is nearing completion and Journalists have called it “Godzilla-sized” and a “behemoth Tower of Babel.” Last year, as it was nearing completion, many Mumbai residents criticized the building as an ostentatious display of wealth in a country where most people live on less than $2 a day.
India’s richest man could lose his 27-storey family home because of claims the land was sold illegally. Mukesh Ambani is facing a federal probe into the construction of his luxury tower block because government ministers claim the plot had been reserved for the education of Muslim children.
