Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; August 22, 2019)

It was 71 years ago in the month of August when Raj Kapoor shot Aag (1948) with Nargis, the first film to be produced under his banner R K Films. The movie, shot at the iconic R K Studios in Chembur, gave birth to Raj Kapoor’s company and studio that went on to live for generations, even long after he passed away. In August last year, the filmmaker’s son Rishi Kapoor announced that he and his siblings had decided to sell off the studio, which faced irreparable damage in a fire in 2016.

The studio, which had seen innumerable films and TV shows being shot in its premises, was also home to the Kapoor family’s annual Ganeshotsav in Chembur. Last year, Raj Kapoor’s eldest son, actor Randhir Kapoor, had told us that it was indeed the last of the celebrations in the studio, which had by then, changed hands. When we visited the site of the studio recently, we found that apart from the iconic gate, nothing of the studio really remains. Its canteen (frequented by stars of yore), the shooting floors and recording studios have all been demolished to make way for a plush complex. However, the gate of the studio will be maintained by the new developers as a memory of Mumbai and Hindi cinema’s iconic cinema landmark.

When we reached out to Randhir Kapoor, he said, “I am sad to see everything has been razed. However, the place will always hold a special place in our hearts because it’s been a part of our lives. It was my father’s legacy. When the studio got terribly damaged in that fire, we had to take a step back and think. Such decisions are not easy to arrive at. It was economically not viable for us to keep the studio, repair it and maintain it because we did not have many takers for the studio floors. The shoots have all moved to the Western suburbs. So, it only made sense to let R K Studios go. The gate, I’m told will stay as is and will continue to remind people of RK Studios. We will be thankful to the developers for that.”

Actress Padmini Kolhapure, a Raj Kapoor discovery, shot several films at the RK Studio, including her debut Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978). When we told her about the studio floor being razed, she reminisced the times when she would spend her days working at the studio. “Today, so many memories attached to R K Studios are coming back to me. It’s sad that now whenever I pass Chembur, I won’t find the studio there, but in Raj uncle’s words, ‘The show must go on’. The memories will live on forever. I shot a lot of films there, so much so that I could call the studio my second home. Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Prem Rog (1982), Rahi Badal Gaye (1985), Yeh Ishq Nahi Aasan (1984) are some of my films I vividly remember shooting for at R K Studios. I feel a stronger connection to the place because I was an R K Films’ heroine. We shot 30 per cent of Prem Rog in the studio at Chembur. We had set up massive sets for the songs. I can never forget those days when we filmed Mohabbat hai kya cheez and Yeh galiyan yeh chaubara there. I was virtually living there. Raj uncle would treat us to such amazing food, and their canteen was phenomenal, too. He would often open the theatre for me to watch some of his classics like Awara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955). He loved cinema and he wanted people to acquaint themselves with it. Raj uncle’s cottage (where he would sit and talk to us), his Holi parties, the recording rooms, the canteen — there's no corner of R K Studio that I don’t remember and that I won’t miss. Whenever I travelled to Pune, I made it a point to go past the R K Studios because I would bow before the Lord Shiva idol they have at the entrance. The studio formed a great part of the city’s legacy and I will miss it each time I pass the bend where it once stood.”

Simi Garewal, who had worked in Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker (1970), had also made a documentary on the legendary filmmaker's life. She said, “I always thought men go, but their monuments and buildings remain. Now, both have gone. But the memories will remain as long as we live. I don’t mourn the end of R K Studios, the films we made there will remain forever.”

Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, who shot a song for his last film, Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017) at the studio, told us, “R K Studios is a hallmark in progressive Indian filmmaking and it’s my privilege to have filmed there. Although it is sad to know that it does not exist physically anymore, it will live on in the ethos of Indian filmmaking forever. I would also like to point out that things change, and filmmaking techniques have changed a lot as well, so from time to time, such hard news is inevitable. I shot a song of Jab Harry Met Sejal there, and I visited the make-up rooms as often as possible in the memory of all the great film personalities like Raj Kapoor and others, who have spent time there.”