As curtains drop at the famed Filmistan Studios, veteran film-journalist Ali Peter John recounts his visits to several such movie hubs

MUMBAI MIRROR; February 20, 2011

The set depicting a small town being constructed at Flimistan Studios. A village home at Kamalistan A railway station set at Kamalistan Studios Kamalistan Studios in its days of glory

The land on which Filmistan stands has been sold to builders for Rs 600 crore. Scaffolds will soon go up and dreams hundreds dreamt here during the last 50 years will be brought down.

It is one of my favourite haunts, the cleanest studio with its small gardens, proverbs and quotations placed in different corners and a diligent staff headed by an elderly woman supervising every little detail.

As I grapple with the looming loss of Filmistan on S V Road, I can’t help but remember all the studios I have visited.

I have, what you may call, a relationship with them. At Amboli, the quiet Andheri village I was born in, the only two landmarks were the St Blaise’s Church, a few hundreds years old, and a massive structure I later came to know as Filmalaya Studios.

I was 10 when I joined a large crowd gathered in the compound there to watch Dilip Kumar singing what I perceived to be a very angry song.

When we moved to Andheri East, we were surrounded by three churches and any number of studios Mohan, Guru Dutt, Kamal, Prakash and M & T.

And then came the sprawling Kamal Amrohi Studios More >