Sunita Surya Kohli, commonly known as Sunita Kohli, is one of India’s most well-known interior designers. She is a self-taught interior designer who conducts research. She is well-known for restoring several prestigious buildings, palaces, and forts in Pakistan, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. She has saved well-known national heritages that were on the verge of extinction.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Sunita Kohli was born in Lakshmi Mansion (the Victoria Building) in Lahore, Pakistan on December 28, 1946. She was born and raised in Lucknow.
Sunita Kohli’s ancestors are from Lahore. Her parents relocated to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, following India’s partition.
Sunita Kohli was born into a Rajput family, and her mother, Chand Sur, is a Hindu Balochi from Quetta.
Sunita Kohli’s mother died on December 3, 2021.
Sunita Kohli married Ramesh Kohli, one of India’s most successful equity investors, on November 21, 1971, when she was 24 years old. She has three children: Kokila Kohli, the sole proprietor of Koko’s KitChan, Kohelika Kohli, an architect schooled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and Suryaveer Kohli, the CEO and Founder of SVK Home.
Anadya, Zohravar, and Aaryaman Bhati are Sunita Kohli’s three grandkids.
EDUCATION
Sunita Kohli went to Roman Catholic School in Lucknow. She then earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi and her master’s degree from Lucknow University. She went on to teach at Loreto College in Lucknow after finishing her studies.
Sunita Kohli used to accompany her father, Indar Prakash, to many sales and auctions as a child, when she saw the collections of Osler chandeliers and Writ and Butler lamps. Looking through such collections piqued her interest in design.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Height (approx.): 5′ 5″
Hair Colour: Salt and Pepper
Eye Colour: Brown
CAREER
Designer of interiors and architectural restorer
Sunita Kohli decided to become an antiquarian after visiting many ‘kabadi’ shops (scrap dealer’s shops) with her husband in Lucknow, Rajasthan, Dehra Dun, and Mussoorie, where they discovered many antiquities such as early 19th century lights and Edwardian furniture; she decided to sell Davenport desks and Regency wine tables. In Lucknow, she received these talents from a great craftsmen. Sunita claims that after she began selling these artefacts, several clients approached her for redecoration work. Her first significant job was the design of a small hotel in Khajuraho.
In an interview in 2007, she stated, “When clients commissioned me to restore furniture, they also sought for ideas on how to redesign their houses. Interior design as a profession just arrived in India in the 1970s.”
She founded ‘Sunita Kohli Interior Designs,’ an interior design enterprise in New Delhi, India, in 1971. She founded ‘Sunita Kohli and Company,’ a contemporary-classic furniture manufacturing company, in 1972. As her company grew, she began to receive proposals to redesign embassies and ambassadorial residences. She has renovated numerous British and non-British structures. Sunita Kohli has assisted in the restoration of numerous notable architects’ works, including Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Herbert Baker, and Sir Robert Tor Russell.
Sunita Kohli has repaired and adorned New Delhi’s Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House Colonnade, Prime Minister’s Office, and Hyderabad House. Her work may be found in numerous hotels and public buildings in Bhutan, including the Bhutan Parliament Building. In New Delhi, India, she created the interiors of the British Council Building and the DLF Corporate Office on Parliament Street. Sunita Kohli has worked in a variety of locations, most notably Egypt, where she created multiple Nile resorts and luxury hotel boats for the Egyptian General Company For Tourism and Hotels (EGOTH) and the ‘Oberoi Group.’ She has also renovated, refurbished, and furnished the Naila Fort in Jaipur for the Oberoi Group’s Chairman, Mr PRS Oberoi.
Sunita Kohli is the author of numerous works, including “Tanjore Paintings,” “Traditional Lamps of India,” “Awadhi Cuisine from the Jehangirabad Kitchens,” and “World Heritage Cultural Sites in India.” She wrote a chapter called ‘The Creation of a Planned City’ about Lutyens and New Delhi for her book, ‘The Millenium Book on New Delhi,’ which was released by Oxford University Press. Sunita Kohli and her mother, Chand Sur, co-wrote The Lucknow Cookbook, which was published on December 5, 2017. The book comprises 230 pages, 18 chapters, and 150 vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals that embody the taste of their kitchen and the kitchens of their friends and family.
The book went on to become one of India’s best-sellers in the nonfiction category. The book encapsulates Lucknowi cuisine and culture. While discussing about ‘The Lucknow Cookbook’ in an interview, held in 2019, Sunita Kohli said,”The recipes in the book are distilled from this rich culinary tradition, the preparation of food is taught through observation, it is a process of osmosis. With four generations of cooks in our family, this book recounts recipes we learned from my mother and other close friends.”
SOCIAL ACTIVIST
Sunita Kohli is the founder and trustee of the Satyagyan Foundation, an affiliate of “World Literacy of Canada” in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.It is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to economic empowerment of women via vocational training and literacy. She is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of ‘Save-a-Mother,’ a non-governmental organisation working to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in India. She also supports the Tata Memorial Hospital’s ‘Women’s Cancer Initiative’ in Mumbai, India.
Sunita Kohli established the ‘National Museum of Women in the Arts in India’ in 2005, in collaboration with the ‘National Museum of Women in the Arts’ in Washington, DC. It was established “to honour women artists of the past, promote the accomplishments of women artists of the present, and secure the future place of women artists.” She has also served on the National Advisory Board of the ‘National Museum of Women in the Arts,’ which is located in Washington, DC.
