Onkar Kulkarni and Ismat Tahseen (BOMBAY TIMES; October 30, 2019)

BIPASHA BASU: ‘What happened at Mukesh Mills while shooting was a scary experience’
“None of my spooky stories are related to the horror films that I’ve done. I was shooting for Footpath (2003) at Mukesh Mills, in Mumbai. It’s known to be spooky and there are many stories around it that the people in the film business keep talking about. It was during the day and I was supposed to shoot on the second floor of the premises. Generally, I don’t forget my dialogues and I was alone in one room and there was this very long track that was placed. Everyone else was in the other room, and each time I had to walk ahead and say the dialogue, it felt like something was stopping me. I knew my entire monologue by heart, yet, I kept forgetting the lines. This happened repeatedly, and that’s when my director Vikram Bhatt asked my hair stylist, ‘What is Bipasha feeling?’ Eventually, we decided that we should get out of there. They got me out of the set, and they gave me some holy water and stuff like that. I slept in the vanity van for a while and then they called for packup. The next day, the crew did a pooja there, basically so that we could continue shooting, but even the pandit who did the pooja had an accident. So, after that, we didn’t complete the scene there; we shot it at a different location. I have no explanation for it, but what happened at Mukesh Mills was a scary experience.

Also, there was another incident in Goa, where I was sharing a room with my hairstylist, at a hotel which was supposed to be spooky. We turned off the lights and went off to sleep. The AC was on and suddenly, I started feeling cold and saw that the fan was on, too. So, I asked my hairstylist, ‘Have you turned on the fan?’ She said that she didn’t do it. I asked her if the switch was by her bedside. It wasn’t. We both got up feeling really scared and wondering how the fan started, when we both didn’t do it ourselves. Then, we tried to turn the lights on, but it didn’t work. I remember how much both of us screamed. Also, just to add, I’ve done a lot of horror films, but in reality, I am a person who gets easily scared of anything. I can’t sleep alone in a room, and if I have to, I keep all the lights on. I’m quite a fattu person. But yes, I try to get over my fears by doing horror films, but not like that’s really helped.”


SUNNY LEONE: ‘I yelled at the ghost and it left me alone’
“I was shooting for one of the seasons of Splitsvilla at a palace in Rajasthan. When we retired to our rooms for the night, I had sleep paralysis. I literally had to push myself to wake up, but I felt some presence holding me down. When it repeated for the third time, I just got up and yelled, ‘Leave me alone!’ It seems this one was a kind ghost as it did leave me alone and things were back to normal.”


ADAH SHARMA: ‘I cannot forget the experience of being in a castle that is believed to be haunted’
“My real-life spooky experience happened during the making of horror movie 1920 (which released in 2008). I was scaring people while shooting for the film; I like to do that for fun, but this place, Allerton Castle, in Yorkshire, was haunted. In fact, it’s supposed to be one of the top 10 haunted castles in the world. When we went there, I was laughing and saying, ‘What nonsense, there’s no such thing,’ and then the caretakers told us stories about how the wife of the housekeeper, who had died, haunts the castle. When we reached there, we saw this huge portrait of her that’s hung on the wall, and the way the woman resembled me, it was uncanny. It was so unreal and crazy that I was really spooked out. Sometime later, I went to the rest room , and while I was trying to come out, I realised that I was locked in and even the lights just went off. No one was around, and I was wondering how I got locked in. The toilets were in the basement and the network had also gone. I was stuck down there for a good 15 minutes, without being able to reach out to anyone for help. On set, they thought that I was outside somewhere. It was scary, and I can’t forget the experience of being in a castle that is believed to be haunted. It takes a lot to scare me, but it did leave us wondering what really happened there.”


GURMEET CHOUDHARY: ‘My hairstylist was behaving like she was possessed’
Many years ago, when I was shooting for Ramayan (TV show) with my wife Debina Bonnerjee in Vadodara, on the banks of the Narmada, our hairdresser was behaving like she was possessed. We were shooting at a shamshaan ghaat. My hairstylist suddenly started crying loudly, and after a while, she started laughing loudly and talking in Gujarati. She is from the south and has never spoken in Gujarati. We asked her to stop, but she just could not. Eventually, we took her to the hotel and tried to calm her down. Even then, she did not stop shouting and crying out loudly. This happened in front of the entire unit and we still can’t forget the experience.


KRITI SANON: ‘My make-up artist felt someone was pushing her’
“When we were shooting for Dilwale (2015), my make-up artist felt an unearthly presence in her hotel room. There was a bottle of body lotion that fell, so she put it back in its place, but it fell again. She was surprised as the table wasn’t moving, nor was there any wind. Later in the night, she felt that someone was pushing her and that’s when we all were spooked out!”


TAAPSEE PANNU: ‘I heard footsteps in my hotel room’
“Firstly, I am extremely scared of ghosts and I do believe that they exist. Personally, I felt something in my room when I was staying at a hotel in Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. I had heard stories earlier of the hotel being haunted. I was alone in the room, when I heard some footsteps echoing. Since I am a scaredy-cat when it comes to ghosts, all I did was convince myself that I was imagining things and literally forced myself to sleep. There was no way I could fight a ghost!”

VARUN SHARMA: ‘I was spooked by an apparition in Manali’
“I remember one incident while travelling to Manali as a kid. There was intense fog on the road, and I was sitting ahead with the driver, when we saw a human-like figure, which disappeared in a jiffy. I was spooked out. Was it just a work of my imagination or was there someone really there? This is something that still remains unanswered. The incident feels like it just happened yesterday, and it still creeps me out. It is etched in my memory for good.”

The location where Amitabh Bachchan shook a leg to Jumma Chumma De De was shut last month after BMC found it dilapidated; owners want ‘safe’ portions to be opened
Chaitanya Marpakwar (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 12, 2019)

Colaba’s Mukesh Mill, a popular film shoot location that had been shut last month, might soon open for business.

Last month, the BMC had shut down the premises after declaring the structures dilapidated and unsafe for shooting. The A ward office issued a note, asking the owners to conduct a fresh audit of all structures on the10-acre mill land and to stay shut until then.

Formally owned by East African Hardware Ltd’s Muljibhai Madhvani, the plot was later taken over by TCI Industries Ltd.

In a letter dated April 30, the owners told the BMC that they had carried out a structural audit and found that only some of the structures inside were dilapidated. Pointing out that the unsafe structures were located near the seaside and not close to the open ground, they requested that the remaining portions be opened for shoots.

Hinting that it’s willing to meet halfway, the civic body directed the mill owners to demolish the dangerous structures before being granted permission for film shoots. “We have received a report from the owners. The structural audit has been carried out by Mahimtura Consultants Pvt Ltd. They have claimed that only a handful of structures are dilapidated, while most of the mill structures are in good condition. But we have asked them to first demolish the dangerous structures before allowing any film shooting,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of A Ward. “We can’t take any risk. For us, the entire mill is one structure. So we can only allow any kind of shooting once the dangerous structures are demolished.”

Officials said that the mill, located on a sea-facing plot at Colaba’s N A Sawant Marg, was originally set up before Independence. “At that time, this was probably the only mill in south Mumbai. The mill itself had a large private dock. There, bales of cotton and load yards of finished cloth were unloaded. They were then transferred to large vessels and exported,” an official said.

BMC officials said that the mill became defunct in the 1980s and soon became Bollywood’s favourite spot to shoot climaxes, action sequences and songs. It has been featured in close to 50 Bollywood films since the 1980s. The popular song Jumma Chumma De De from Hum (1991), featuring actor Amitabh Bachchan, was shot there, as were portions of films like Lukka Chuppi, Heropanti, Raaz, Jee Karda and Badlapur in recent times. Many advertisements, too, have been shot there.

Jumma Chumma from Amitabh-starrer Hum to Poster Lagwa Do from Luka Chuppi, Mukesh Mills compound has been a favourite location for several generations of filmmakers. BMC says ‘imminent danger’ of structures collapsing; corporator Makarand Narwekar insists just one building dilapidated, terms civic body’s action mala fide
Chaitanya Marpakwar (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 29, 2019)

It’s pack up for Mukesh Mills compound, the seaside structure in Colaba, which has earned fame and notoriety in equal measures as a film shoot location and a haunted place. In a letter issued by the BMC’s A Ward recently, the owners have been instructed to shut the compound for film shoots and other activities as several structures there have allegedly turned far too weak.

Now owned by the Transport Corporation of India, the compound, spread over 11 acres, needs a fresh audit till which time no activity will take place there, the BMC note said. “A notice has been issued to the Mukesh Mills owners to get a fresh structural audit conducted. Our survey showed that the walls and the chimney have turned weak and the structures are dilapidated,” Assistant Municipal Commissioner (A Ward) Kiran Dighavkar said.

Mukesh Mills compound was established in the early 1900s by Muljibhai Madhvani, who owned East African Hardware Ltd. It was the only mill in south Mumbai at that time. After the collapse of the mills in Mumbai, the compound was abandoned and caught the eye of filmmakers. Songs, climaxes, and action sequences of as many as 50 Bollywood films, including Amitabh Bachchan-starred Hum (above), to more recent movies such as Heropanti (below) and Luka Chuppi (left), have been filmed here. In 1992, there were efforts to redevelop the compound as part of the razing of numerous mills to make way for residential and commercial buildings, but the deal couldn’t be finalised.

Parallel to the film shoots, stories of the compound being haunted spread to such an extent that it became infamous as one of the top 10 haunted places in the entire country. A popular Mukesh Mills story revolves around a hugely popular yesteryear actress warning the crew members to leave the place immediately in a manly voice. Believing that the actress was possessed by an angry spirit, the director immediately announced pack up, the unverified story goes.

A BMC official said that at one point in time, the mill compound had a large private dock from where bales of cotton and yards of finished cloth were unloaded and transferred to ships for export. “The condition of one of the structures has worsened, and we can’t take a risk by allowing film shoots here. The property will have to remain shut till our structural auditor declares otherwise,” the official said.

While the Mukesh Mills’s executive director Sunil Warerkar refused to comment, saying the administrator will reply to queries from this newspaper on Friday, the ward corporator, Makarand Narwekar, said the BMC should re-audit all the structures. “The BMC has only issued a letter and not a notice. There is no section mentioned on the letter and this seems to be an attempt to harass the owners. The place is a hub for film shoots and these should be promoted. There are many structures on the compound and just one of them one of them is dilapidated,” Narwekar, from BJP, said.

“The unsafe structure has been cordoned off. The mill owners have already submitted an audit report about the remaining structures to prove they’re safe. The audit was conducted by the firm empanelled with the BMC, whose actions suggest mala fide intentions,” Narwekar further alleged. 

MUMBAI MIRROR (December 22, 2016)

If Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur were in high spirits right till the fag end of their upcoming romance drama, OK Jaanu, then there was a reason for it. The film’s climax was shot in the dilapidated Mukesh Mills, which since it’s shut down has acquired the reputation of being haunted.

The stories they had heard, gave everyone the chills so they decided to start really early and leave the location before darkness fell.

Production designer Sharmishta Roy had converted the mill into a market street. A source from the unit admitted that the place did give them the shivers, but with the two ghostbusters around, there were no moments of real horror and thank God for that!