Photo: Yami Gautam/ Instagram
And earlier, when a 100-year-old heritage home on a 25-acre plot near Mandi came up for sale in 2016, it felt less like a real estate opportunity and more like fate. Even though her life has mostly involved metro cities and commercialised living, this place is more of an emotional connection for her than a property investment, so she chose to keep the interiors of this 100-year-old home intact.
Even though the owners were going to sell the property to someone else, it was sold to her over other buyers, who trusted her to look after their family’s home for generations, according to a media report. Long before red carpets and film sets, Yami Gautam’s happiest memories were made in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, at her nani’s house near Shimla, where she spent every summer as a child. For Yami, the purchase was never about investment value. It was just like reclaiming a piece of her childhood as even though she grew up in Chandigarh, she visited her Nani’s home in Shimla every summer. She often posts videos of this Himachal home-cum-farmland, designed in typical Himachali architecture, where she relaxes and rejuvenates by connecting with nature and enjoying natural detox drinks like ‘haldi ka paani’. Of everything in the house, she kept the sloping tin roof. she made it clear the roof would stay exactly as it was, saying she wanted to hear the ‘rain patter’ against it during monsoon season While overseeing renovations. The puja room, too, was left untouched, both features were preserved deliberately as emotional anchors to the home’s original character.