Join a fun walk around Veera Desai Road — the hub of film studios where ideas turn into content
Balram Vishwakarma (centre) during the walk beside YRF Studio
What is heritage? You’re likely to instantly imagine a building that’s centuries old, possibly in SoBo. But Andheri resident and digital creator Balram Vishwakarma urges you to look at the suburb, specifically the Veera Desai Road neighbourhood. Barely three decades old, the locality boasts of the largest concentration of film studios and production houses. Its bars, cafés and tapris alike bear witness to the joys of clearing auditions, the heartbreaks of rejections, and the resilience of future superstars. From Fun Republic to Natraj Hall, the eternally chaotic locality is where most of the Hindi film industry’s ideation, scripting and decision-making takes place, shares Vishwakarma. To give people a peek into its underbelly, he is hosting the Anti-Heritage Walk.
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The guide, who worked at FilterCopy and grew up in the area, stresses on its cultural significance. Kicking off near Fun Republic, the morning walk takes you through the history of the locality, formerly a creek and hotbed of crimes; trivia on Balaji Studio and SAB TV; the legacy of Yash Raj Films; FilterCopy and the rise of digital content; the PewDiePie vs T-Series rift; among other interesting pit stops. En route, he promises his trademark jokes, peppered with insider insights. “In the end, we take a short walk through the neighbouring slum. The idea is to show that this is where the grease of this great machinery comes from. We also speak about the SRA scheme, and take a look at the living conditions of the settlement,” he tells us.
On December 17 and 18
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