Mumbai: Taking the dream to revive the shuttered Rhythm house at Kala Ghoda a step further, Mahindra group chairman Anand Mahindra on Wednesday launched an exclusive handle on social media website, Twitter that will coalesce the crowd-sourced effort to acquire and restore the iconic city music store to its former glory.
“A new handle: Rhythm House Revival @RhythmHouseRev has been created for the collaborative initiative to acquire, restore & re-purpose Mumbai’s iconic Rhythm House. Do follow if you are interested in news about the project. The handle will be used to source ideas & share progress,” Mr. Mahindra said on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Mahindra first floated the idea on Monday, two days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached Rhythm House as part of its actions against diamond trader Nirav Modi who along with his associates have carried out a ₹12,600-odd crore fraud on the country’s second-largest bank, Punjab National Bank. Rhythm House is one of the 21 immovable assets belonging to the Nirav Modi group of firms worth over ₹524 crore, that have been provisionally attached as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Rhythm House was founded in 1948 by Suleman Nensey but eventually, Mehmood Curmally’s father Mammoo became a partner. Initially, they sold music equipment but soon got into vinyl records. In the mid-1970s, Mammoo invited his brother Amir to help him run the business. Amir left his advertising job in Kolkata.
Mr. Modi had bought Rhythm House from the Curmally family in 2017 and later announced his intention to turn it into a showroom, eliciting pained reactions from music lovers in and around Mumbai, who were already sad at the closure of the legendary store in 2016. “If the ED is going to eventually auction Rhythm House, how about a bunch of us in Mumbai collectively acquiring it, restoring it & turning it into a performance venue for Rising musicians & a hangout for music lovers? Happy to be part of such a band...” the Mahindra Group chairman said in a Monday afternoon post on his official Twitter handle.
With thousands of people responding positively to his idea and offering their own time, money or resources for the project — including Congress leader Milind Deora and Jay Kotak, son of one of the country’s smartest bankers Uday Kotak — Mr. Mahindra on Tuesday announced the creation of a secretariat that will steer the plan. A social enterprise is likely to be created to bid for the property. “I’d like to keep this initiative transparent & participative. All ideas are welcome.... Let's use Twitter as the Townhall where ideas can be contributed and progress shared... Requesting my colleague Jay Shah, head, cultural outreach at the Mahindra Group along with his colleague to be the initial secretariat for this project,” he said in a series of tweets. “Stunned by the response to this Tweet. Its clear that people love this city and its iconic landmarks and will work to preserve them. The sheer number of replies and the resources and skills wielded by the respondents tells me this is do-able. Of course, we now have to make it happen,” he had added.
By Wednesday evening, the new social media handle for reviving the music store had acquired around 1,300 followers. While musicians like Vishal Dadlani have offered to help, the stand-up comedy fraternity also chipped in on Wednesday. “Sir I am a stand-up Comedian and willing to offer my services free for a fund raiser show for this cause. I think I may be able to convince some of my other fellow comics too. Let me know,” said city-based Atul Khatri in response to Mr. Mahindra.
