Kapoor family to sell RK Studio

The studio successfully released Awaara starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis in 1951. Rex Features 

Bollywood's Kapoor family has collectively decided to sell the sprawling landmark RK Studio. Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan says she has fond memories of the studio, built by her late legendary grandfather Raj Kapoor.

Kareena said "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 up to 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 final show.

The Kapoor family took the tough decision to sell the 70-year-old two-acre RK Studio after it was gutted by a fire last year.

Rishi Kapoor, in an interview to the Mumbai Mirror on behalf of the family, said they were initially juggling with the idea of renovating the place with state-of-the-art technology, but the investment in rebuilding the studio would not have yielded sufficient revenue to keep it going. He called it a "level-headed decision".

In September last year, a major fire broke out on the sets of a dance reality show, leaving a section of the studio gutted.

R.K. Studio, the headquarters of the film production company R.K. Films, was founded and named after Raj Kapoor in 1948.

Its inaugural banner film Aag that year crashed at the box office, but the next year proved to be a good omen when its production Barsaat (1949), starring Raj Kapoor-Nargis was a super-hit.

In fact, the company's logo was designed to reflect the poster of a scene from Barsaat and after that, the studio never looked back.

It had a string of successful black-and-white releases like Awaara (1951), Boot Polish (1954), Shri 420 (1955), Jaagte Raho (1956).

Later, the studio was the venue for several other big ticket films like Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hain (1960), Mera Naam Joker (1970), Bobby (1973), the debut film for Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia, Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Prem Rog (1982), Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), which was the founder-actor's last film before his death in June 1988.

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