What's with film actors' wives and the business of interior design and products?

Suniel Shetty's wife Mana Shetty is the latest to enter the interiors business with the launch of her home interiors store - R House.

She follows in illustrious footsteps. Suzanne Roshan, Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan's wife, Twinkle Khanna, former actor and wife of star Akshay Kumar, and actor Bobby Deol's wife Tanya have all launched interior design outfits.

Suzanne, who studied interior design in the US, now runs a boutique called House of Design in Mumbai, while Twinkle runs a interiors store called The White Window that even won the Elle Decor International Design Award. And Tanya has her own furniture and home accessories store.

As a differentiator, Suniel says a huge chunk of their products have been made by Indian artisans and that setting up a store was something they have been thinking of for a long time.

"This was Mana's dream and it is also my dream because 90 percent of the products are Indian. I am a patriotic man, I love my country and to appreciate small town artisans were required," says Suniel, who has been seen in movies such as "Thank You", "No Problem", and "Loot".

And Suniel clearly takes patriotism seriously. "Instead of the tag 'Made in India', our tag is 'Proudly Indian' with the tricolour. People are liking the things, we go to Europe and buy things which are Indian."


Though such stores usually cater only to the super rich, Suniel says his products will be affordable for the middle-class as well.

"The middle-class would definitely be able to afford it and the look is much better than the highest class. Our things here are better than many international brands," says the actor best know for his role in the laugh riot "Hera Pheri".

The launch of the store was attended by a host of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, wife Jaya, son Abhishek, Kajol and Ajay Devgn, Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra, Raveena Tandon and many others.