Kareena Kapoor on RK Studios sale: It is our family home, will be always close to heart

Bollywood’s Kapoor family, perhaps the first family of the Hindi film industry, has decided to sell the iconic RK Studios. Kareena Kapoor Khan opened up about the sale of the sprawling landmark, calling it their family home which will always be close to the family’s heart. The studio was built by her grandfather Raj Kapoor.

Kareena, who has been under the weather for the last few days, told Hindustan Times that she is not aware of the reasons of the sale and that the family elders are involved in the negotiations. “RK Studios will always be close to our heart. It is our family home. It is one of the glorious studios to have ever been made,” she said.

Talking to IANS, the actor who walked the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week, added, “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.”

She added that the decision to sell RK Studio rests with “my father, his brothers and up to them... If that’s what they have decided, so be it”. Earlier, Rishi Kapoor had said in an interview to Mumbai Mirror that the family has taken the tough decision of selling RK Studio 70 years after it was established as it was not economically viable to rebuild it after it was gutted in a fire last year.

“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,” Rishi had said.

Raj kapoor established the studio with his film Aag, followed by the superhit Barsaat. Its string of successes include Awaara (1951), Boot Polish (1954), Shri 420 (1955), Jaagte Raho (1956). Raj Kapoor’s last film before his death, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, was also produced under the same banner.

First Published: Aug 27, 2018 13:43 IST