PESHAWAR: Authorities in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan are going to buy from the current owners the dilapidated ancestral homes of two Bollywood legends and turn them into museums, prompting one of them to ask netizens on Wednesday to share photographs of his family's old mansion.
The two houses next to Qissa Khwani — the city's oldest and most famous road, known as the "Street of Storytellers" — belonged to the families of Bollywood greats Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar who were born and raised there. They migrated to India before Pakistan was created from the British Raj in 1947.
Kumar, 97, who lives in Mumbai, turned to Twitter and requested those in Peshawar to share their photographs of the house.
"We will rebuild them to their old shape and preserve them,” said Dr. Abdul Samad, director of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Archeology and Museums Department.
The department, he told Arab News on Tuesday, had sent a written request to the Peshawar commissioner to estimate the value of the houses so that it could buy it.
Some time ago, Samad said, the current owners were planning to demolish the houses and build commercial centers in their place. The archeology department stopped the process under the Antiquity Act 2016.
“We had to stop the demolition. Now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to purchase these houses under the land acquisition act.”
Bollywood legend Raj Kapoor's ancestral house in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sept. 29, 2020. More than 100 years old, the haveli is now a ruin. (AN photo)
Peshawar's rich cultural heritage has greatly suffered in the past decades when the region became a hotbed of militancy and saw many historic buildings destroyed.
The current government, Samad said, has been planning to revive the city's cultural sites, including the two mansions, which are both more than 100 years old.
"Let me tell you that it is a part of the Peshawar revival plan,” he said.
Peshawar locals say the Kapoor haveli, with its majestic facade and jharokhas — overhanging enclosed balconies — was built between 1916 and 1918 by Raj Kapoor's grandfather, Dewan Basheswarnath Singh Kapoor. (AN photo)
Amir Nawaz, an octogenarian goldsmith who resides in the congested Dhakki Munawar Shah area, next to Qissa Khwani, told Arab News that the Kapoor haveli, with its majestic facade and jharokhas — overhanging enclosed balconies — was built between 1916 and 1918 by Raj Kapoor's grandfather, Dewan Basheswarnath Singh Kapoor.
He said that during in the late 1980s, Raj Kapoor’s younger brother, Shashi Kapoor, and son Rishi visited Peshawar and took with some soil from their haveli, which was then laid into the foundation of the family's house in India. Kapoor died in 1988.
The facade of Raj Kapoor’s ancestral home in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sept. 29, 2020. The provincial archaeology department has vowed to buy the mansion, restore it and convert into a museum. (AN photo)
Anwar Shah who owns a roadside eatery said that he has often seen foreign and local visitors coming to the area in search of the historic buildings.
“We have been waiting for this decision for years. Now it should be materialized without further delays because the mansions have already lost their splendor due to negligence."
