Farsh: India’s colourful plurality comes home with the striking floor and wall tiles collection by Bharat Floorings & Tiles and Pavitra Rajaram

When a brand has been around for a hundred years, you know it is a business rooted in committed passion. Perhaps, a steady run towards carving a legacy that cradles the power in it to change social, economic and cultural patterns, plausibly untouched and unchanged before. And if India’s history has to be investigated over the years, leaping through the pre-independent 20th century over to the independent, evolving 21st century, the ascent of Bharat Floorings & Tiles (BFT) is a convincing portrayal of how incisive design virtues can break the ceiling of the ordinary formulas of interiors and decoration. 

The brand with its reigning hold on tiles for floors and walls since 1922 has yet again challenged the fundamentals of creativity in collaboration with Pavitra Rajaram, Founder and Creative Director of her multifaceted design practice, Pavitra Rajaram Design. Farsh, the capsule collection of floor and wall tiles resounds with a milestone-worthy spirit.

Baring an elaborate thread of the history of flooring in our subcontinent and tickled by her experiences of travel and design, Pavitra knew what she was in search of — a contemporary reflection of the olden Mughal craftsmanship, stroked visibly with her idea of Indian heritage. Each piece is embedded with cues of Mughal motifs like cypress, poppy and cintamani and traditional Central Asian patterns of Suzani embroidery. The more the diversity of patterns, the better the tiles can be interwoven as larger canvases together.

The collection also mirrors the marriage of cultural and technical influences both BFT and Pavitra have imbibed in their design repository so far. An echoing example of this is the translation of inlay work seen in marble floors through cast cement tiling technique. A peak of precision, dextrous artistry and of course, patience for the final results, multiple tiles have been used to render a single motif.

And what’s more fascinating is the inception point of this association that surfaced almost ten years ago, on a boat to Alibaug, a coastal town in Maharashtra. “I remember Pavitra made a very kind offer to work with us. Now, as Bharat Floorings & Tiles turned 100 years old, we were looking for someone to do a spectacular collaboration with, whom we loved and respected enormously and who would give us timeless designs – and who better for this than Pavitra?” remarks Firdaus Variava, Vice Chairman, Bharat Floorings & Tiles.

Pavitra muses that the foundation of the collection Farsh is underlined with an immaculate attention to detail and days and months of research. “The design started with hand-drawn motifs. In this case, the motif had to be adapted to the technique – cast-cement. Since these are made with moulds, the motifs had to follow a certain logic so that they could be produced accurately and with quality which was a big learning.”

But the sweet challenge to interpret delicate nature-inspired motifs to the impliable character of cement was perhaps the hero of the entire process. Perusing the wondrous world of these tiles, what also stands out is the lyrical flow of geometry that spells the enamouring tenor of intricate Islamic art and architecture, not just limited to floor tiles but also in creations of tile drapings for walls and skirtings. “With the colours, we wanted to offer a more contemporary graphic palette and also plan the collection as different elements that could be mixed and matched together to create unique floors,” reveals Pavitra.

Read more: A peek into the 100 years of Bharat Floorings and Tiles and a word with Firdaus Variava