Anupam Kher wants to have own home, set up film city in Shimla

Veteran actor Anupam Kher says he wants to have his own house in Shimla and set up a film city as symbol of love for the town, where he lived before moving to Mumbai for career in Bollywood.

Kher, 61, was here to perform his play “Mera Woh Matlab Nahi Tha” along with Neena Gupta and Rakesh Bedi, at the third Manohar Singh Memorial Drama Festival at historic Gaiety Theater, where he started his acting career from.

“We have been living in a rented house all along and I want to have a house of my own in Shimla, which is also the cherished dream of my mother,” he told reporters.

“Setting of film city or opening a film Institute is also my dream and I have written to the successive governments thrice as the task cannot be accomplished without the support and encourage of the government,” Kher said.

The actor-producer, who is espousing the cause of displaced Kashmiri Pandits said, “The efforts made by us have produced some positive results and I am pursuing the matter vigorously and hopeful of good results.”

While strolling on the Mall Road, Kher went down the memory lane and recalled many events and just stopped at Alfa Restaurant on Scandal Point and said, “this is the place where my father gave me a treat after I failed in my Board examination and told me not to get disheartened by failures and work hard to achieve the goal.”

Kher said that with concrete structures mushrooming in the town, number of vehicles increasing adding to pollution and disturbing the serene environs, the town has changed a lot in past few years.

For him, however, the biggest change in the town has been his father’s demise, which happened a few years ago. “My father, who passed a few years ago, is not here in Shimla and I will always miss him and remember with gratitude.

“My father was a clerk and today I am being interviewed and this is what I tell the people that anything can be achieved by sheer hardwork,” the actor said.