Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has decided the cost of the ancestral houses of veteran Bollywood actors Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in the core of this city after the house was announced as national heritage in 2014 by the then Nawaz Sharif government.
The government in September chose to buy their genealogical houses to preserve the historical structures which are seemingly about to crumble confronting impending danger of destruction. The two houses, situated in the heart of this northern Pakistani city, have been announced as public legacy. Not many know that the two legends of the Indian film were brought up in their initial days before the partition.
Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar Muhammad Ali Asghar, following a report of the Communication and Works Department, fixed the cost of Dilip Kumar’s house for Rs 80,56,000 while that of Raj Kapoor’s house for Rs 1,50,00,000 (USD 93,529).
Archeology office has sent a proper solicitation to the provincial government for delivering over Rs 2 crore for buying both the structures.
97 year old Raj Kapoor’s genealogical home, known as Kapoor Haveli, is constructed in the popular Qissa Khwani Bazar. It was built somewhere during 1918 and 1922 by the actor’s grandfather Dewan Basheswarnath Kapoor. Dilip Kumar’s over 100-year-old ancestral house is located in the same area too.
It is said that the owner of the property demanded 200 crore from archeology department before transferring the rights to announce it as the national heritage site.