Plunge pools in the room and hot tubs in the wilderness — the concept of a hotel suite has certainly metamorphosed from being the largest room on offer at the property. Newer properties have pushed the limits with these experiences when designing rooms, while some of the older hotels with space constraints are re-imagining what they can do within their four walls. The newly revamped Maharaja Suite at Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi is the latest to join this club. Here, the iconic mascot — the Maharaja of Air India — and the heydays of travel by this pioneering airline have been worked into the design brief. It also celebrates the new future of the airline as it returns to the Tata group after being a government-owned enterprise for 69 years.
Bobby Mukherji, who designed it, says that the entire Maharaja Suite is a modern interpretation of what might have been the boudoir of the ‘Maharaja’. The well-travelled Maharaja with his distinctive handlebar moustache has been depicted in advertising campaigns as someone enjoying the beach with a mermaid in Sydney, visiting museums in London, skiing in Europe and sampling a plate of spaghetti in Rome. The suite that has been designed is a nod to the mascot’s naughty and witty character. Created by the inimitable Bobby Kooka in 1946, this ‘Maharaja’, he had explained, was called “a Maharaja for want of a better description. But his blood isn’t blue. He may look like royalty, but he isn’t royal”.
