MUMBAI: While the state government and film industry are preparing for Bollywood's centenary year in 2013, heritage lovers are fighting to keep one of the industry's oldest relics afloat. Bombay Talkies, India's first corporate studio, has largely turned into a dumping ground. The outermost façade still stands, but heritage lovers fear it will crumble if not preserved.
Film historian Amrit Gangar has now written to heritage committee chief Dinesh Afzalpurkar pleading for the 77-year-old structure to be saved. "It is such a crying shame that the remaining relics of the glorious Bombay Talkies studio have now been turned into a dumping ground for garbage and an open urinal," Gangar told TOI. "The heritage place, which needs our respect and reverence, is openly stinking of our apathy, disregard and disrespect.''
