PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government approved on Saturday a Rs23.56 million budget to buy the ancestral homes of legendary Bollywood actors Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.

“Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa approves Rs23.56 million to buy the ancestral houses of two Indian film legendary actors Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in Peshawar,” the KP Directorate of Archaeology and Museums said in a tweet.

Rs15 million have been allocated for Raj Kapoor’s house and Rs8.56 for Dilip Kumar’s, it said. The houses will be turned into museums.

Kumar, whose real name is Mohammad Yousuf Khan, was born in Peshawar. His childhood home dilapidated and lost its shape over the years.

The current owners of the houses were planning on demolishing them but the provincial government stopped them from doing so.

In September 2020, the KP government announced that it would convert ancestral homes of actors Kumar and late Kapoor into museums.

Following the announcement, Kumar had shared some memories of the time he spent as a child with his grandparents, parents, siblings and cousins in Peshawar.

“I am at once full of fond remembrances of my parents, grandparents and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins who filled the house with the sounds of their chatter and hearty laughter,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I have lovely memories of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, where I received my first lessons in storytelling which later provided the impetus to choose meaty stories and scripts for my work.”