Friday, May 14, 2010

Mukesh Mills- A Film Location or House of Ghost

Mukesh Mills: All you people must have had a look at this shooting location in many films, commercials etc, but the people who work there are really having horrifying experience when the director says that the next shot for the project will be at Mukesh Mills. FYI, Mukesh Mills was established in 1975 as Mukesh Textile Mills and is located at Colaba Mumbai and is a dead end with the Arabian Sea next to it. After some years into business the mill had to be shut down due to a major fire in the mill. Even the workers had been on a long strike. In late 80s and early 90s, there were some areas in Mumbai which was not supposed to be a common mans visit place. These places were dead ends with water surrounding areas like Mukesh Mills in Colaba, Lokhandwala, Powai and Malad. During those days there were lots of gangwars and crime ratio was at its peak in Mumbai wherein gold smuggling was main activity which was carried out through water ways. So these places were a kind of hideouts for all Bhais of those time. It is even said that many people were murdered and thrown into the waters. So this was a brief description of Mumbai and Mukesh Mills.

It is said that if a person dies in a deep sorrow his soul happens to visit the place where he died and does not rest in peace. And that is why i think there were many such ghostly activities heard about in that place. My mother is a well known model coordinator in mumbai and in one of the shoots i had accompanied my mom to mukesh mills with some kids. The call time for us was 9 AM and we packed up at around 6PM. I am actually never fond of shoots, that is why i was roaming around in the mills and was just having some chat with some of the people who work there. I started my conversation with a sweeper by asking him a match stick for a smoke and then i just asked him is there ghosts in this area, coz i had heard a lot about it. He said that i have been working here since 2 years but have never seen a ghost. But there are many such activities which happen that makes you feel the presence of a ghost. For instance i once had to sweep the mill area and just as i finished cleaning everything and called for the production team, i saw that all the food wastes and water bottles had been thrown in that area, whereas just 5 minutes back i had cleant that part. He also told me that the management of Mukesh Mills does not allow people to be there after 9PM but on special permission people shoot on their own risk. Once the watchman had closed the gates of the mill and was just going out when he heard some music from inside and that day there was no shoot in the premises. He even saw somebody smoking inside, but he was scared to approach and didnt go there. Next morning when he went to check out there was no one there. So these were some of the happenings told to me by the sweeper.

I thanked him for the matchbox and went and stood besides some drivers who were near the car park. They were pointing to my car and were saying that who has parked his car there coz that area was particularly forbidden and no one goes there. I wanted to be away from the shoot thats why i had parked my car out there. So i told them that its my car and i have parked it over there.. At once one person told me Sahab aap apni gadi waha park mat karo woh aacha jagah nahi hai..(dont park your car there, it is not a good place). Inturn i responded par waha toh chaav hai aur thoda thanda bhi hai, is taraf jaha tum logon ne gadi rakha hai waha thoda dhoop ho raha hai (i told him that there is shade out here and its a bit cool. And the place where u guys have parked the car is a bit sunny). Then at once he told me, Sahab aap pade likhe log ho toh mazak samjhoge par us jagah par kaafi haadse hue hai aur woh jagah par bhoot pret hai.. (He told me that u are educated people and u wont believe and make fun if i tell u that there are many incidents happend at that place and the place is haunted). I at once apologized and said it is not to make fun, i believe you and will move my car from there. I went near my car and lit up a cigrette once more and just started to have a look at that area. Indeed i was getting some negative vibes from that place. Evil thoughts started coming in my mind and i didnt want to wait there any further. I at once started my car and parked it near other cars.The shooting was over somewhere around 5.30 and by the time my mom was getting the kids it was nearly 6.15. Suddenly one girl on the sets started moving in a wierd manner, she started rolling on the ground and her hands had almost turned backwards. Seeing this, all were scared and the kids were shit scared. We made them sit in the car. There was chaos all over, people shouting, the production team running for help, calling people for help. At last what we did was we all packed up and started moving,

My mom called up the childs parent after some hours and surprisingly she was completely alright. The girls dad just told, Madam as soon as i started driving out of mukesh mills within 5 minutes my daughter became alright. My mom was happy that the girl was now fine. But this incident had made her scared. But work is work, there has been many times that she has been to mukesh mills after that shoot. Me too.. but things were pretty normal. It is truely said "to see is believing" and i believed that there exists some supernatural power which we call "Spirits" or "Ghosts"