Bollywood's first family has taken the tough decision of selling Raj Kapoor's iconic RK Studio 70 years after it was built. Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, who has fond memories of the studio, says while the decision is upsetting, she cannot really do anything about it.
Kareena told IANS: "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 in the last four or five days... But of course, we have all grown up walking around in those corridors."
"I think it's probably something that the family has decided, so it's upto my fathers, his brothers and up to them... If that's what they have decided, so be it," added the actress on the sidelines of the Lakme Fashion Week, where she was the showstopper for the finale show.
Rishi Kapoor called it a 'level-headed' decision as he confirmed the reports on Sunday in an interview to Mumbai Mirror, “For a while, we did juggle with the idea of renovating the place with state-of-the-art technology. However, in reality it isn’t always possible for a phoenix to rise from the ashes. We Kapoors are very emotional lot but then… The investment in rebuilding the studio would just not have yielded sufficient revenue to keep it going."
"Believe me, we had to take the larger picture into account and take a level-headed decision. Even before the fire, for years R. K. Studio had become a huge white elephant, toting up losses. The few bookings we would get from films, TV serials and ad shoots would expect free parking space, air-conditioning and discounts,” he told the daily."
A portion of the RK Films And Studios caught fire in September 2017 after which the family finally took the decision of selling the property. The brothers were also fearful of the property ending up in litigation and becoming the cause of fights between the next generation.
“We brothers are strongly bonded. But who knows about our children and grand-children? What if differences crop up in the next generation? The studio would only end up in litigation as so many industrial and textile estates have. There would be family differences and only lawyers would end up charging heavy sums of fee. Do you think my father would have liked to see his labour of love become the subject of courtroom proceedings?” Rishi added.
