Raj Kapoor’s haveli in Pakistan partially demolished

Bollywood legend Raj Kapoor’s’s birthplace in Pakistan has been partially demolished by

owner in Pakistan’s Peshawar city on Saturday, media reports said.

Pakistani paper Dawn reported that the archaeology department made a last-minute attempt to

save the historic building located in Dhaki Munawar Shah area of the walled city but by then, the

top floor of the four-storey structure was pulled down.

However, the top floor of the 98-year-old four-storey “Kapoor Haveli” was pulled down, the Dawn

said. They said the rest of the building was badly damaged.

The archaeology department officials told Dawn that when they learned about the demolition of

the house on last Saturday, they rushed went to the Khan Raziq police station to sought their

help to stop the demolition work. “After much haggling, police personnel followed us to the site

and the demolition stopped,” an official was quoted as saying.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had earlier declared the houses of Peshawar-born

Bollywood actors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar as heritage to protect and preserve them.

Police stopped the demolition work but sought written application from the authority.

Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor has said his family does not have any emotional attachment with

his grandfather’s ancestral house in Peshawar Kapoor Haveli, and the Pakistani government can

demolish it.

“We don’t have any emotional connect to that house since we haven’t seen it. Let the Pakistan

government demolish it,” he said on Sunday.

“I am not even sure if that was our grandfather’s own house or rented because he didn’t enough

have money then to own a house. So I don’t think anyone from the Kapoor family has any

problem with that.”

According to details written on the slab inside the Haveli, Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor, father

of Prithviraj Kapoor and grandfather of Raj Kapoor, constructed the building in 1918.

“We came to India even before Partition, and never saw the house. I don’t know why others are

having an issue, when we ourselves don’t have any problem with the demolition. We three

brothers never stayed there. Why would we have a problem?” the actor told a leading TV

channel from India.