Peshawar: The provincial government in Pakistan has decided to purchase the ancestral houses of legendary Bollywood actors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar to conserve the historic buildings which are in dilapidated condition and facing demolition threat. The Department of Archaeology in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has decided to allocate sufficient funds for purchasing the two buildings, which have been declared as the national heritage. To determine the cost of both the historic buildings, an official letter has been sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar, where the two greats of Indian cinema were born and raised in their early days before the partition.
Raj Kapoor’s ancestral home ‘Kapoor Haveli’ is situated in the fabled Qissa Khwani Bazar. It was built between 1918 and 1922 by the legendary actor’s grandfather Dewan Basheswarnath Kapoor. Raj Kapoor and his uncle Trilok Kapoor were born in the building. It has been declared national heritage by the provincial government. Veteran actor Dilip Kumar’s over a 100-year-old ancestral house is also located in the same locality. The house is in shambles and was declared as a national heritage in 2014 by the then Nawaz Sharif government. The owner of Kapoor Haveli, Ali Qadar, said that he did not want to demolish the building and made many contacts with the archaeology department officials to protect and preserve this historic structure which is national pride. The owner has demanded Rs 200 crore from the KP government to sell it out to the government.
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