Will Miss Famous Studios

My older brother has been there looking for work, then I went there looking for a job, my brother's son too went there and dropped his CV at one of the studios about 3years ago. Unfortunately his children will only hear of it or read about it in nostalgia evoking articles.  Famous Studios, Mahalaxmi.  It has been a landmark. The first time I went there, I was about 21 years old. I wasn't prepared for the maze I was stepping into. I couldn't find my way out. Kept on going round and round. At last,  I went back to the office, where I had dropped my CV.  The sweet lady at the reception was not amused at all at my plight. She smiled and asked the office boy to show me the way. The boy guided me to the stairs and asked me whether I wanted him to come down, to the gate. I am sure he used to come across lot of dimwits like me. By now I was feeling so stupid that I refused any further help and managed to find my way out from there.  I would have still been feeling foolish about that incident, had it not been that many years later when I happened to be there for some work, I led another lost soul to the gate.

Generations after generations of film fraternity and ad world  has stepped into the building which has been a landmark since 1946. So many tales of the past must the walls of the studio be holding close to them. Euphoria of the citizens of a country moving from being a colony to an independent nation must have unfurled around it. They all will be lost in the rubble of the building to make way to a new structure. I just hope whatever comes there is not a grotesque structure of steel and glass, something most of the builders in our country have taken fancy to. We find it easy to copy what the whole world is doing.  We don't want to pull out anything out of the hat. There are structures of glass all over the city which I personally feel do not go well with the heat of the city. Mostly these structures are so ill maintained that there are layers and layers of dust settling on them, making them extremely dirty to look at. But they are cropping up like weeds all over the city.

I am ready to hold the address Famous Studios, Dr. E Moses Road Mahalaxmi, as a sweet memory close to my heart and make way to a new structure only if the new structure makes me look up at it in awe.  Just like years ago when I landed in this vibrant city, I loved the view of the sea from Mahim Causeway. Even today I love that view with the added incentive of admiring the Worli Sea Link sprawled across the sea. As it is last year we bid adieu to many legends of the film world.....similarly with a heavy heart we will bid adieu to this legendary building too......