<p>You travel back in time as you enter Seethaphone Company, a store in the middle of Avenue Road, selling everything vintage from brass statues to gramophones.</p>.<p>Founded by D N Seetharama Setty in 1924, it was intended to support another shop he had founded four years earlier.</p>.<p>As music labels began to sell their records in south India, the enterprising Setty set up the Hindustan Musical Mart in a narrow building that once housed the chariot from a temple across the street. The year was 1920.</p>.<p>As business boomed, the Seethaphone Company came into being to assemble hand-wound gramophones from imported parts.</p>.<p>Today, it is under the care of third-generation proprietor Venkatesh Babu, who inherited it from his father Srinivasa Murthy. The store is slowly returning to normal after a year of slow business.</p>.<p>“This is where we have lived ever since my great grandfather Donti Nanappa Setty migrated from Sidlaghatta. We have created our own little vintage universe in this locality,” he says.</p>.<p>This store has evolved with every generation. When the 1980s rolled in, gramophones became obsolete, and Seethaphone Company began selling the more modern record players.</p>.<p>When the electronic market shifted to nearby SP Road in the ’90s, the store focused on brass figurines.</p>.<p>The tide is turning, Venkatesh says, with customers asking more about music products than brass figurines.</p>.<p>“People are again taking interest in gramophones and record players. We have people who travel from other cities and states to get their musical equipment fixed,” says Venkatesh.</p>.<p>Being one of the last standing stores to repair vintage musical equipment, Seethaphone Company is busy to this day with service requests. Venkatesh and his employees Raju and Reddy repair record players. Charges start at<br />Rs 1,200. </p>.<p><strong>Centenary year</strong></p>.<p>In three years, Seethaphone Company turns 100, and plans are afoot for a celebration. It won’t be ‘over-the-top,’ says Venkatesh. “We are organising an exhibition of antiques we have collected as a tribute to my grandfather,” he explains.</p>.<p><strong>Collectors’ paradise</strong></p>.<p>The two-storey Seethaphone Company houses a wide variety of brass statues on the ground floor and gramophones and record players on the first. Seethaphone Company offers original gramophones for about Rs 15,000 and replicas for Rs 5,000.</p>.<p>Coming out of a tough 2020, business is picking up slowly. Collectors are returning to scour through the stacks of records, which cover a vast range, from Bollywood to M S Subbulakshmi to Donna Summer. </p>.<p><span class="italic">Seethaphone Company, Avenue Rd (opposite Balaji Temple).</span></p>.<p><span class="italic">Phone: 9341308333.</span></p>
<p>You travel back in time as you enter Seethaphone Company, a store in the middle of Avenue Road, selling everything vintage from brass statues to gramophones.</p>.<p>Founded by D N Seetharama Setty in 1924, it was intended to support another shop he had founded four years earlier.</p>.<p>As music labels began to sell their records in south India, the enterprising Setty set up the Hindustan Musical Mart in a narrow building that once housed the chariot from a temple across the street. The year was 1920.</p>.<p>As business boomed, the Seethaphone Company came into being to assemble hand-wound gramophones from imported parts.</p>.<p>Today, it is under the care of third-generation proprietor Venkatesh Babu, who inherited it from his father Srinivasa Murthy. The store is slowly returning to normal after a year of slow business.</p>.<p>“This is where we have lived ever since my great grandfather Donti Nanappa Setty migrated from Sidlaghatta. We have created our own little vintage universe in this locality,” he says.</p>.<p>This store has evolved with every generation. When the 1980s rolled in, gramophones became obsolete, and Seethaphone Company began selling the more modern record players.</p>.<p>When the electronic market shifted to nearby SP Road in the ’90s, the store focused on brass figurines.</p>.<p>The tide is turning, Venkatesh says, with customers asking more about music products than brass figurines.</p>.<p>“People are again taking interest in gramophones and record players. We have people who travel from other cities and states to get their musical equipment fixed,” says Venkatesh.</p>.<p>Being one of the last standing stores to repair vintage musical equipment, Seethaphone Company is busy to this day with service requests. Venkatesh and his employees Raju and Reddy repair record players. Charges start at<br />Rs 1,200. </p>.<p><strong>Centenary year</strong></p>.<p>In three years, Seethaphone Company turns 100, and plans are afoot for a celebration. It won’t be ‘over-the-top,’ says Venkatesh. “We are organising an exhibition of antiques we have collected as a tribute to my grandfather,” he explains.</p>.<p><strong>Collectors’ paradise</strong></p>.<p>The two-storey Seethaphone Company houses a wide variety of brass statues on the ground floor and gramophones and record players on the first. Seethaphone Company offers original gramophones for about Rs 15,000 and replicas for Rs 5,000.</p>.<p>Coming out of a tough 2020, business is picking up slowly. Collectors are returning to scour through the stacks of records, which cover a vast range, from Bollywood to M S Subbulakshmi to Donna Summer. </p>.<p><span class="italic">Seethaphone Company, Avenue Rd (opposite Balaji Temple).</span></p>.<p><span class="italic">Phone: 9341308333.</span></p>
