It was in August 2018 that the Kapoors had opened up on their plans of selling the iconic RK Studios of 2.2 acre property due to its high-maintenance cost that they were not able to cope up with. By October, rumour mills suggested that they were in talks with Godrej Properties for its sale. A latest report in TOI now states that the developers have decided to raze the entire studio except the iconic gate. The report states, “The gate of the studio will be maintained by the new developers as a memory of Mumbai and Hindi cinema’s iconic cinema landmark.”
Talking about the same, Randhir Kapoor told Times Of India, “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 RK 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 RK 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 RK Studios. I feel a stronger connection to the place because I was an RK 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 RK 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 RK 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.”
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