The Provincial Government of Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has decided to buy the ancestral homes of famous Bollywood actors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, who are in shabby condition and facing the threat of demolition, in view of the preservation of historic buildings. The Archaeological Department of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has decided to provide adequate funds to purchase both these buildings, which have been declared as national heritage.
Both these buildings are located in the city of Peshawar. Dr. Abdus Samad Khan, Head of the Department of Archeology, said that an official letter has been sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar to determine the cost of both the historic buildings, where two great Indian cinema magnates were born and raised in childhood before partition.
Raj Kapoor’s ancestral house is known as Kapoor Haveli, which is located in Kissa Khwani Bazaar. It was built by Raj Kapoor’s grandfather Diwan Basheshwanath Kapoor between 1918 and 1922. The 100-year-old ancestral house of actor Dilip Kumar is also present in this area. The house is in a dilapidated condition and was declared a national heritage by the then Nawaz Sharif government in 2014.
Khan said that the owners of both these historic buildings tried to break it several times to build a commercial plaza but all such efforts were stopped because the archeology department wanted to preserve them because of their historical importance. However, Kapoor mansion owner Ali Kadar said that he did not want to demolish the building.
Ali claimed that he approached the officials of the Department of Archeology several times to protect and preserve this historic building which is a national pride. The owner of the building has demanded Rs 200 crore to sell it to the government.
