Fragrances that honor life, emotion, and the world around us.

How did House of Kanzan begin?

It started with a molecule.

2-Methylfuran. My post-grad thesis in Chemical Engineering. A small compound that smells like almonds - or toasted bread, depending on the day. Fascinated by aroma chemistry, I started delving into naturals, synthetics, the whole world of perfumery materials.

That’s when I realized: fragrance isn’t chemistry pretending to be art. It’s both at once.

I come from a middle-class family. This kind of business - abstract, sensory, impossible to explain at dinner parties - wasn’t the obvious path.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that fragrance could be more than a commodity. It could transport you. Make you feel something you didn’t have words for.

I thought: maybe I could try. Not as a business plan. As an experiment in whether scent could hold memory.

Who are the people behind Kanzan?

Me, Omesh and my wife, Jimmy. I handle creative direction and fragrance development. Jimmy built our entire digital infrastructure - website, backend, systems - all while eight months pregnant, sitting on our bedroom floor with a laptop that kept overheating. We started in 2019 in our Nashik home. No investors. No safety net. Just curiosity and stubborn refusal to make something mediocre. Jimmy says the hardest part wasn’t the tech - it was convincing me that “good enough” could sometimes be good enough. I wanted every detail perfect. She wanted us to actually launch.She was right. I’m still learning that.Today we have a team of seven. Each gets free fragrances every two months - which sounds generous until you realize they’re our most honest critics.

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Why fragrance?

Because fragrance is the only art form that requires surrender.

You can look away from a painting. Close a book. But scent finds you. One moment you’re walking down a street, and suddenly you’re twelve again, standing in your grandmother’s kitchen.

Fragrance is armchair travel - but it’s also time travel.

We create around specific moments. Not abstract concepts like “summer” or “elegance,” but real things: a forest after a storm, a decades-old café, the silence of a bookshop at closing time.

What was the first fragrance?
What were the early days be like?
What’s been the biggest challenge?
What’s been the most rewarding part?
Have you always known what Kanzan would become?
What do you hope Kanzan becomes?