How Pacho is recasting Jaipur

Sawai Padmanabh Singh is not an easy man to catch. Yes, the 26-year-old titular maharaja of Jaipur (Pacho to his close friends and half a million followers on Instagram) has been generous in opening his home, the City Palace Jaipur, to creatives from across the country for evenings curated around fashion and culture in recent months. But glamorous soirees are only a small helping on his very full plate. His calendar is bursting with polo tournaments and training sessions, the opening of an upcoming arts centre, and the myriad ceremonial duties attached to his royal title.

We finally manage to catch him on a Tuesday afternoon, after a weekend of Dussehra celebrations. Dressed in a white mul shirt (and juttis “from a chap in Barmer whose family has always made them”), Singh’s face appears on my screen from his office, even though his is “not a typical desk job”. There is a din of activity as his team buzzes around him, but that doesn’t deter him from directing his full attention to our conversation. He tells me that when not at the office, he’s either on the polo field or on site at the various properties his family manages. “I also always spend a bit of time with my grandmother every day. And every now and then, I will socialise in the evenings. September to April is an especially great time to be in Jaipur. There’s so much going on.”

This last year in particular has seen a retraining of all eyes on Jaipur in many ways. Much of this renewed interest can be credited to the young king who, along with his sister Gauravi Kumari, has been on a mission to revitalise its spirit by opening their home and personal spaces for events with like-minded collaborators. “These are collaborations that highlight the fact that Jaipur is a proactive and contemporary city. And that we very much want to engage in the dialogue around what’s hot in the world right now,” explains Singh, who was crowned king at 13, following his grandfather Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh’s demise.

The most recent was the launch of a capsule collection he designed with U.S. Polo Assn. (USPA), an American brand for which he is a global ambassador. The line not only captures Singh’s flair for fashion, but also packs in details such as Jaipur’s five-coloured Panchranga flag and a zardozi crest that reads ‘Pacho Jaipur’. As a professional polo player who also formerly captained the Indian polo team, the collaboration has personal meaning to him. “I enjoyed being a part of it, more so because of all that the brand and its CEO Michael Prince do for the sport across the world,” he admits.

An idea with heart

Style savant may be the moniker that has really stuck with Singh — and that is not surprising considering that he has fronted several magazine covers, routinely tops global best-dressed lists, has walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana when he was 19, and is the ultimate clotheshorse — but his interests go well beyond. In fact, what excites him the most right now is his work in the space of art and the conservation of heritage properties.

Up next is the Jaipur Centre for Art (JCA) that launches next month, for which Singh has joined forces with close friend and city-based art specialist Noelle Kadar. As a graduate in cultural heritage management and art history from Università e Nobil Collegio degli Orefici in Rome, the maharaja has always harboured a deep appreciation for art. When Kadar and he identified the absence of any major initiatives in contemporary art in Jaipur, they took on the responsibility “to create something ourselves”.

The upcoming centre will have a 2,600 sq.ft. permanent exhibition space at the City Palace alongside installations at heritage properties across the city, a sculpture park at Jaigarh Fort and a dynamic calendar of monthly events. “Rather than loading it all up in one place in one go, we wanted to scatter it and spread it out,” he says. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you, but we open with the works of Anish Kapoor, Sean Scully and Hiroshi Sugimoto, some of the biggest names in the world right now.”

The centre will also have a residency programme (still under development) with a focus on the meaningful involvement of the local artist community.

Beyond the glamour

Singh embodies a new era of Indian royals who are tethered to their legacy but are inviting more people to partake in culture in modern ways. “I’ve been trying to think of ways in which to bring people back to Rajasthan for the fourth or fifth time — travellers who are looking for experiences and not just a destination.”

He says he is doing it in his “own small ways” through IPs (intellectual property) that encapsulate the music, food, entertainment and performance art of Rajasthan. Such as the Jaigarh Heritage Festival, an annual event that debuts this December in a collaboration with Teamwork Arts, which also produces the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Then there is the overhaul of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum within the palace grounds, towards which he has been dedicating a majority of his time. “The museum has been around for over 50 years, and houses arguably some of the most important objects of antiquity that we have in our country. However, it was seen more as a monument. So, we’ve invited some of the best curators and conservators from around the world to help us reorganise the whole museum, which we will present at the end of next year,” he says.

Ultimately, Singh is driven by the vision to transform iconic historic spaces into places of participation. “It’s a privilege to work with properties and objects that are so significant to our national heritage, and to have some influence over what happens to them for generations to come.”

But it’s easy to get mystified by the glamour and grandeur of his life (and title) that it can sometimes supersede the work he is doing at the grassroots level. Does that bother him? “I don’t worry too much about what people will say or what my perception is. Influencing lives gives me the greatest sense of reward and satisfaction,” he insists. One of the most gratifying experiences for him is to encourage those supported by the Princess Diya Kumari Foundation, started by his mother to uplift women through skill development. He ponders over the question some more. “What also gives me satisfaction is when I see a property that was kind of just rotting, being used for something productive. I derive my sense of joy from very different things.”

The writer is an award-winning fashion and lifestyle journalist.