In 2012 a Mumbai-based auction house, Pundoles, was given Jehangir Bhabha’s estate to auction off. Out of several items owned by Jehangir Bhabha, there were many items in the catalogue that also belonged to his brother and the father of Indian nuclear programme, Homi J. Bhabha, including an antique study table. A 24-year-old got his hands on the catalogue of various items from the estate, which were to be auctioned off, and his eyes fell onto the table. He went up to his father, and asked him to bid for the table, only because he liked the way it looked and as luck would have it, they got the table.
10 years later, the now 34-year-old is Jim Sarbh who is playing the role of Jehangir Bhabha’s brother and nuclear physicist, Homi J Bhabha, in the upcoming web series ‘Rocket Boys’. “I think some magnetic connections are just securely made right,” Sarbh laughs as he tells us he has been working on the desk, which is in his Mumbai apartment currently, for “over eight years” now.
"It's a bizzare co-incideince isn’t it? Actually, my uncle runs the art auction house, and 10 years ago, when he was given Jehangir Bhabha’s massive estate to auction off, I got a chance to look at the catalogue. I just looked at the table, without even knowing whose it was, and said oh this is really nice art-décor desk, and we must have it. I just said it off-handedly. But then, as a sweet and lovable gesture, my father got it for me, because I really didn’t have any money back then,” says Sarbh.
Before playing the role, Sarbh admits he didn’t know much about Homi J Bhabha, and jokes that he was initially confused if he was being offered a role in filmmaker Homi Adajania’s biopic instead. “They just said, will you be in a biopic on Homi. So, I was like ‘nice, the guy isn’t dead yet, but it’s great that we are making it’. That’s when they corrected me and they said it’s Homi J Bhabha!” he jokes.
There are many things that drew him to the role, including the fact that they are parsis. “I mean Freddie Mercury was already done, so only Homi J Bhabha was left for me to play!” he wise cracks.
The desk, now holds a much more significant meaning, than it probably did before. “Of course, it is just brilliant to see how connections are made. People think Homi J Bhabha was a brilliant scientist, and rightly so, of course he was. But he was also a man who appreciated arts and promoted it as well. He was a fantastic painter, played the violin brilliantly. He was a well-rounded, complete man who had a wicket sense of humour, but at the same time he was a charming and a spontaneous man,” Sarbh signs off.
