ALL ABOUT VIKRAM GANDHI — A MAN OF ART AND HUMANITY
Vikram Gandhi stands in front of a single-piece fibre glass sculpture of a yogi, showing his power centre all lit up — a work by Prafull Singh. An open Bhagavad Gita lies on the bookstand, while a 3-D collage showing a newstand bearing all the big stories of the past century (details visible on the right below) remains one of his favourite ‘finds’; “We saw this at a street art fair in Florida, the artist had about 50 such works! It didn’t cost much”
Tell us about your formative years, how you feel it has led to you being a globetrotting philanthropist, art collector and visionary in the world of global finance?
“So, I have had the good fortune and opportunity of being reasonably successful in my career. I was born in Allahabad, my naani and naana lived there, and those days you were born where your mother’s family was. Thereafter, we moved to Mumbai, and I grew up here in Cuffe Parade, went to St Xavier’s School, and grew up very respectably middle class. Since my parents were actually migrants from Pakistan, I am, therefore, one of the patrons of the Partition Museum in Amritsar. In fact, we just had a big function there, and I am thinking of dedicating a gallery there in my parents’ names.”
You had a brilliant career even in academics and clearly were born to a strong work ethic… even though you say your dad was not very educated?
“So, as I said my dad came here, and yes, he was not really highly qualified, but he came up the ranks through sheer hard work. He reached the level of CEO and President of United Breweries, working for Vijay Mallya’s dad, by the time he retired. Growing up, the focus they encouraged was on my studies; they did encourage extra-curricular activities, but given the economic strata that we were in, a focus on art was as far away from anything, so actually there was zero exposure!”
Your global professional career in finance clearly took off due to your exceptional performance as a student at Harvard Business school…
“I (Vikram Gandhi)got into Harvard Business school because my dad believed in me. I wasn’t a scholar. He somehow got the funds organized, some support from the Tata trust and a few other organisations, he took some loans which I paid back over time. They only have scholarships now — they didn’t back then. Yes I was named The Baker Scholar — but that was based on achievement. Every year they admit 850 to 900 students — the top five percent — so about 40 students, would get the highest academic achievement honour. So, every batch, would have its Baker Scholar.”
It was in Harvard that you met Meera Gandhi, your ex-wife..
“Yes, my ex-wife was also in Business School at Harvard. We married, we had kids, then I went to work in New York. And then when we got our first place, in Manhattan, we had all these bare walls, and we realised we had to put something up there (laughs)! We wondered how to do this. And as we started making a little more money, we started looking at buying art.”
So how did your journey as art patron and collector evolve?
“Over time, it evolved. Meera, my ex-wife is quite networked. She started looking at galleries in New York, galleries in India. After six-seven years in New York, I came back to India for three years, as the head of Morgan Stanley for India, so this was between 1997–1999. So, essentially during those three years, building the business, we kind of got involved with the art scene here, things like that. So it just kind of evolved.”
Your collection clearly comes from a heartspace, not a business space… and it’s very globe-trotting and bohemian.
“Yes, as we got more exposed, we started collecting. And true, it was never an investmentbased approach. Like once, holidaying in Jaipur, we were at Amer Fort, and walked into a gallery, and I saw this 3D work by Akash Choyal — I just thought it was cool. Then I have my home in Nassau, the Bahamas, a place here and in London, and one in Boston as well. All these homes have art from different parts of the world; I (Vikram Gandhi)generally don’t ship things from place to place. I bought the Churchgate photo by the Brazilian photographer Sebastian Salgado at the Art Basel in Hong Kong, from an exhibition of Asia-focused works, because it seemed so appropriate for an iconic image about Mumbai to be in a Mumbai apartment! I saw it at the Sundaram Tagore gallery in HK. It is truly a global collection — there are Israeli, Columbian, Indian, Chinese, Brazilian, Scandinavian works.”
