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Streets of Gold: Mumbai

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Factual: Real Life Stories

What it’s really like in the boom town of Mumbai, the playground of billionaires.

Meet the glamorous super-rich of Mumbai, India's most fashionable city. Incredible wealth and extreme poverty live side by side in a sun-drenched city bursting with opportunity.

Series 1

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Sunetra Sarker

Philip McCreery

Teresa Watkins

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Jeremy Lee

Forest

Streets of Gold: Mumbai: Series 1: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Two - Streets of Gold: Mumbai, Series 1, Episode 1

India’s one-percenters enjoy a life of unparalleled luxury in the boom town of Mumbai.

India’s one-percenters throw open their doors on a life of unparalleled luxury and decadence in the boom town of Mumbai, with vertical palaces and over-the-top parties in India’s own gilded age.

In this episode, we are given a rare glimpse behind the gilded doors of Mumbai’s one-percenters at the start of the social season.

Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, two of India’s most coveted designers, have dressed everyone from Posh Spice to Dame Judi Dench. Now, they throw open the doors of their fashionable residence on Juhu Beach, Mumbai’s answer to Beverly Hills, as preparations are underway for the launch of their new collection, featuring a provocative film designed to outrage conservative opinion.

Celebrated novelist Shobhaa De, known as the Jackie Collins of India, is launching her new book, Insatiable, in Asia’s highest rooftop bar, and to mark the occasion, she is interviewed by Bollywood heartthrob Aamir Khan. Shobhaa, born six months after Indian independence, became the voice of a newly liberated India in the 1990s. Her writings, unapologetic and provocative, mirrored changing attitudes towards women, sex and society.

In 1990, tragedy struck the Birlas, one of Mumbai’s richest manufacturing dynasties, when the father, mother and daughter of one branch of the family were all killed in a plane crash. Their only son, Yash, was studying in America at the time, and we meet him during a photoshoot for his devoted social media following. He explains how he channelled his feelings of desperation ‘from remorse to love’.

Billionaire petrolhead Gautam Singhania is the driving force behind the iconic Raymond brand. Throughout the 1990s, a Raymond suit came to embody a new Indian ethos which was ambitious, sophisticated and international in outlook.

Jimmy Mistry is a Parsi business tycoon who designed his own skyscraper inspired by the palace of Persephone. His business empire was built on the economic reforms of 1991, and he now represents a particular group of Indian entrepreneurs who throw themselves into philanthropic enterprises. Today, he has a bad back, and places his faith in the hands of friend and astral architect Neeta Sinha, who promises a simple cure involving yellow sunflowers.

Cousins Deepa Harijan and Siddhi Jadhav live in a small row of one-room homes in the shadow of Antilia, the controversial residence of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. They watched the skyscraper go up on a plot of land they used to play on as children. It is now reported to be the second most expensive house in the world after Buckingham Palace. But far from resenting this conspicuous show of opulence, Deepa and Siddhi dream of earning enough to buy their own homes on Millionaires' Row one day.

Finally, it’s party time in Juhu, where Abu and Sandeep are hosting the go-to fashion event of the season. Mumbai's crème de la crème don their most extravagant outfits for an event that celebrates diversity and inclusivity in all its forms, and highlights the most progressive spirit of avant-garde creativity in contemporary India.

Streets of Gold: Mumbai: Series 1

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