Around 10 pm Saturday, actor Rishi Kapoor had his first drink, way past his regular drinking hour of 8 pm. After a few sips, he switched off his phone, closed his eyes, and let his thoughts rewind to one of the most traumatic days of his life. His father, legendary showman Raj Kapoor's dream project, the address where some of the biggest blockbusters were shot, Stage One of the iconic R K Studios in Chembur, was gutted in a fire that had started at 2.22 pm on Saturday.

Just the memory of the calamity brought a lump to Rishi's throat. “I still cannot believe it. I'm partially in denial even now. I spent several hours looking around the studio and as the embers fell, I felt distressed and helpless. Yet, here I am at home and I'm still thinking that perhaps it was just a bad dream,“ Rishi told Mumbai Mirror. His son Ranbir, who heard about the incident in London, is rushing back.

Rishi was not in a position to comment on the exact cause of the fire because everything he heard was “conjecture“. While the police and the Fire Brigade officials have begun the process of a panchnama to ascertain the exact cause, it is said that on Friday, a reality show, Super Dancer 2, was shot on the floor till the early hours of Saturday. Post pack-up, the lights on the set and in the makeup rooms were switched off.

Rishi recalled some of the films that were shot in the studio, on the very stage that has now been gutted: Awara, Shree 420, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Mera Naam Joker, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Dharam Karam, Prem Rog, to Rishi's own directorial film, Aa Ab Laut Chalen in 1999... “My own journey at the R K Studio started at the age of two when I shot with my elder siblings, Randhir and Ritu, for the song 'Pyaar Hua Iqraar Hua' from Shree 420. I kept crying because I had to walk through heavy rain and Nargisji bribed me with a Cadbury chocolate, promising to give it to me if I did what my father asked me to do. That aside, can you now imagine, how devastated I was when I saw the fire destroy everything around me? I am 65 now. It's a place I have been frequenting for 63 years. So have my siblings. It is an equally big blow for Randhir and Rajeev,“ Rishi said.

He said it was all the more heart breaking for the matriarch, Krishna Raj Kapoor, who has been a gracious host at countless events at the studio. “My mother is devastated. She keeps indifferent health and we asked her not to come to the studio because the fire was quite bad. There was smoke bellowing all around,“ he said.

When asked about the losses, Rishi said “everything was gone“, including the famous joker mask Raj Kapoor wore in Mera Naam Joker. “There were costumes from every RK film, from Awara to Chalen. Most of the stuff was kept neatly in trunks and some of it was even labelled. The costumes worn by every RK heroine, from Nargis to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, is lost. The jewellery worn by Padmini in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai was also stored here with a lot of love. There were spears, sabres, artefacts, furniture and other regalia used for the various shoots. The Mera Naam Joker mask and clothes... Dabboo and I couldn't believe what hit us. This is probably why they say that one should never put all eggs in one basket. But for us, this was our father's legacy, and it was a treasure trove.“

R K Studio had seen several tragedies. In 1970 when Mera Naam Joker flopped, Raj Kapoor had to mortgage the studio. Then, towards the end of his life, the Kapoor patriarch sold two stages of RK Studios for a paltry sum. But even after Raj Kapoor's death, his sons never contemplated selling any part of the property. “We hung on to our father's legacy,“ Rishi said. “Today I feel a sense of deep bereavement because we lost all of this.“ Echoing Randhir Kapoor's statement that the family may come to terms with the financial loss but not with the emotional loss, Rishi said, “My father didn't buy a home for his family until Bobby's success. He put all his earnings into the studio because cinema was his religion.“

It is said that back in 1951, Raj Kapoor had constructed just four walls on Stage One, which didn't even have a proper roof because he used natural light to shoot. “My brothers and I can build the four walls again and even add a roof. But how can we compensate the loss of the precious memorabilia? That will never come back. Countless films, besides those made under our home banner, have been shot at R K Studio. It has also been the venue for our Holi and Ganpati celebrations. The loss is not just ours as a family, it is a loss for the entire film fraternity,“ said Rishi.

He recalls that RK came into being in the year of Awara. “My father shot the famous dream sequence here. At that time there were just four walls and no roof. The entire dream sequence was shot after sundown because Chembur got electricity only in the nights in the 1950s. During the day, my father toiled for other filmmakers as an actor...and then at night he put his earnings into his own film,“ he said.