Far from the madding Andheri-Goregaon, dramaville has a new address – the distant but affordable Mira Road

Alka Shukla (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 13, 2011)

At Mira Road, in the midst of an unending cavalcade of trucks on the highway, a slew of under-construction towers, dozens of builders’ hoardings persuading readers the suburb is not really that far, and a cluster of factories at Penkar Pada, the last thing you expect is a dash of glamour.

But inside one of the decrepit structures, you are greeted not by the drone of heavy machines but spot boys and lightmen moving shooting equipment and production vans.

The town, considered the last resort way into the ’90s, is now on television.

Separated from Greater Mumbai by a marshy creek, the suburb was just fields until the late ’70s. Even in the late 1990s, it was primarily two large townships Shanti Nagar and Naya Nagar with a few others just emerging.

Now, in 2011, when the population here has crossed the 10 lakh mark, it is fast becoming the small screen’s big location.

Nilesh Wairker Actors rest on the palatial set of Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo between shots

Moves

A monument to this merger of the old Mira Road and the new is Magnum ‘studios’, an erstwhile textile factory.

The palatial house here is home to Bharati, a midget and lead character of Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo, and her in-laws.

It attempts to remind you of the Agra style of architecture. The garishly dressed men and women in it are, More >