Bollywood’s iconic RK studios to be sold
Rishi Kapoor says it is not viable to restore the premises, which was severely damaged in a fire last year
Bollywood’s Kapoor family has decided to sell the sprawling landmark RK Studio in Mumbai.
Actor Rishi Kapoor, in an interview to Indian newspaper Mumbai Mirror on behalf of the family, said they were initially juggling with the idea of renovating the place with state-of-the-art technology, but the investment in rebuilding the studio after a fire broke out on the premises last year would not have yielded sufficient revenue to keep it going.
Kareena Kapoor Khan says she has fond memories of the studio, built by her late legendary grandfather-filmmaker Raj Kapoor. “I don’t know how far what is actually happening. In fact, I have been quite under the weather and I haven’t even met my father [Randhir Kapoor] in the last four or five days... But of course, we have all grown up walking around in those corridors,” Kapoor Khan said. “I think it’s probably something that the family has decided, so it’s up to my father, his brothers... If that’s what they have decided, so be it,” she added. The two-acre RK Studio was established 70 years ago. In September last year, a fire broke out on the set of a dance reality show, leaving a section of the studio gutted.
RK Studio, the headquarters of the film production company RK Films, was founded and named after Raj Kapoor in 1948. Its inaugural banner film Aag that year crashed at the box office, but the next year proved to be a good omen when its production Barsaat (1949), starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis was a hit.