Curtain Call

In 1956, when noted filmmaker and writer Kamal Amrohi was hunting for a plot in the city, he was keen to build a family home complete with a swimming pool, tennis court and parking space. While he was in the market for a 10,000-yard stretch, he came across an expansive patch spread across 11-lakh sq yards. “When the broker showed him the land, he was a little annoyed as it exceeded his requirement and initially rejected it,” recalls his younger son Tajdar Amrohi, who was seven at that time. However, after much persuasion by his manager, Amrohi acquired the land in Jogeshwari. Since Bandra was then, considered the limits of the city, his real estate acquisition, as Tajdar puts it, “was tadipar (ostracisation). There was not even a bird around, forget a police station.”

But as Amrohi went on to become a prolific filmmaker with an enviable body of work, it was his son Tajdar who suggested a studio be built in that very plot of land. Situated on Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road, Kamalistan Studios has since witnessed the making of many Indian classics, such as Razia Sultan, Amar Akhbar Antony, Kaalia, Khalnayak, and Koyla, among others.

The lush green gardens at the Kamal Amrohi Studio.

Initially, the terrain was rocky and uneven so work had to be done to level the ground. “We would often find paw impressions of tiger and leopards from the nearby jungle. While work was on the land, a small 10x15 space was carved out which had bamboo shed. Baba would go there in the morning with his lunch and sit there the whole day,” says the 65-year-old son who renamed it to Kamal Amrohi Studios after his death in 1993.

By 1958, when the writer opened the gates of Kamalistan for filmmakers to shoot, it boasted of gardens and fountains. “Baba was fond of greenery. So we together planted some 50,000 trees. The fountains in the studio were to baba’s personal liking,” remembers Tajdar. Spread over 16 acres, the studio over time had a set of a railway station with a platform, hospital, court, Kotha, police station, jail and an entire village with a peepal tree in its midst. But the most unique feature of the studio was its railway station set. “The railway coach was the one used in Pakeeza. With modifications, we reused it and placed it on springs for the moving effect,” reveals Tajdar. Says S. M. M. Ausaja, film historian, “None of the studios had a railway station at that time. Most of the railway station shots in the films were filmed on this particular set. Initially, for a moving effect, they would shake the train from outside.”

The railway station set constructed in the studio premises.

During the 1970s to 2000, the studio was the favourite haunt for noted filmmakers such as Manmohan Desai, Manoj Kumar and Subhash Ghai, among others. “Manmohan Desai shot the most of his films here and it is Desai who made the studio known to the industry as he shot maximum of his films here. Yash Chopra erected the stables for Bazigaar here and Subhash Ghai filmed a large number of scenes from Khalnayak at the studio. Sooraj Bartajya considers it a bad omen to not shoot at the studio. Once a scene in Hum Aapke Hai Kaun wasn’t filmed at the studio. But before the film’s release, the director made sure that he re-shot it at the studio,” says Tajdar.