The way for the museum in the houses of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in Pakistan is cleared

The Pakistan government has taken over the ancestral homes of Indian actors Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in Peshawar and will now be preserved in their original form.

Both the famous actors of Hindi films were also born in these havelis of Peshawar. However now they are in disrepair.

The Director of the Department of Archeology and Museums of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Dr Abdul Samad, told the BBC that the Peshawar Deputy Commissioner has told him that these havelis have now been handed over to the Archaeological Department and have been taken under control and sealed.

The official said that now its restoration work will start and the first step in this is to decide its estimated cost.

In September 2020, the Archaeological Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had sent a letter to the Peshawar commissioner in this regard, saying that the department wants to declare these places as ‘protected’, so these havelis should be taken over by the government.

Then a notification was said that a museum would be made in the houses of both the artists, which are currently closed, where besides these artists, objects related to another prominent Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan will also be preserved.

The department believes that this will encourage cultural tourism.

Dilip Kumar’s house and Kapoor’s mansion

Dilip Kumar’s house is in Mohalla Khudadad of Khwaani Bazaar, the famous and historical story of Peshawar. The then residential area has now been transformed into a major commercial center.

Mohammad Yusuf Khan, popularly known as Dilip Kumar, was born in this house on December 11, 1922. Dilip Kumar moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) with his family in 1930.

When Dilip Kumar went to Pakistan in 1988, he also visited Peshawar and went to his old house and kissed its door and shared childhood memories with people.

Proposal to set up museums

Kapoor Haveli is in the Dilgaran area of ​​Peshawar. A generation of the Kapoor family, who gave many superstars to Bollywood, was born in this mansion. This mansion was built between 1918 and 1922. Raj Kapoor was also born in this mansion. After the partition of the country, his family came to India.

Although large parts of the houses of both artists have collapsed and their current owners have tried several times to demolish the buildings and build plazas, the administration stopped them.

After coming into the possession of the government, the original condition of these buildings will be restored, after which museums will be established here. The museums will house things related to Dilip Kumar and the Kapoor family, records and memorabilia from their films, as well as items related to Shah Rukh Khan.

Before being hit by violence, Peshawar was a center of culture and art. Now that the situation has improved, the government has started a campaign to revive the traditional culture here and more than 100 years old buildings are being preserved.

There are 1800 buildings of historical importance in Peshawar and the process of identifying them is going on.