Screengrab from an Instagram reel featuring the house of a retired Air Force officer in the city. Priyam Saraswat (left) with the homeowners.
An entrepreneur from Bengaluru is giving a tour of beautiful houses on his social media accounts. A majority of these residential properties are located in Bengaluru. The rest span locations like Mumbai and Delhi, and Miami and California in the USA.
Priyam Saraswat runs a tech startup. He says the idea of making house tour videos came to him by “serendipity”. He recalls, “I was visiting a friend’s house. It was nice and green. I casually recorded different elements around her house.” He uploaded it on Instagram in April and it went “fairly viral”. The video has 70,000 likes and 56,600 shares, and many comments enquiring about its rent and location.
He has uploaded around 30 videos as Instagram reels and YouTube shorts since. He shoots and edits on weekends.
In these clips, people take Saraswat to different nooks of their house such as the lounge, home theatre, library, garden, and terrace with scenic views. They talk about their aesthetics, collection of knick-knacks, and hobbies. His interviewees playfully dodge the question about the rent they pay, which Saraswat poses sometimes.
Saraswat’s endeavour “is to show that houses are not only shaped by brick and mortar but also the personalities and life experiences of those who live in them”. Among his interviewees are people who raise honeybees, pursue pottery, don’t own a TV set by choice, and who like Victorian interiors and old cars.
The house of a retired Air Force officer in Bengaluru is one of Saraswat’s favourites. It has on display aircraft models gifted to him or built by him, and also paintings of aircraft, done by him. His wife is a painter and a part-time doctor. Grinding stones belonging to her mother and grandmother are assembled in their garden as a waterfall feature. The 200-year-old roof from her childhood home has also been installed in this house.
Another favourite is a “hobbit house”, built underground by a mother-daughter duo on the outskirts of Mumbai. “It took them 10 years to get permission for the land and another 15 years to build the house,” he says. He was also welcomed inside the royal palace in Udaipur where the James Bond movie ‘Octopussy’ was shot.
Look up @priyamsaraswat on Instagram and YouTube.