Residents say no to Bandra nightclub

News of actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra reviving Bandra’s closed nightclub, Poison, on Waterfield Road, has left many local residents upset, reports Sayli Udas Mankikar.

News of actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra reviving Bandra’s closed nightclub, Poison, on Waterfield Road, has left many local residents upset.

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Among them is homemaker Mariam Nizam who lives in the Red Rose building on 27th Road, which shared compound space with Poison before the club shut down in August. While the club was in business, Nizam had to change the location of her children’s room to the rear of their house to shield them from the heavy-duty noise from the club. In the morning, she would walk the children down from the compound to keep them from picking up the condoms and urine-filled cola bottles left behind by the night’s revellers, Nizam said.

She is joined by more than 1,300 other residents of 36 buildings in the quiet residential area, in a fight to oppose Kundra’s new club, which will have a capacity of 700, and is due for a February 2010 opening.

“People would come out of the club drunk at 4 am, yelling and breaking the peace. We complained to the club but nothing happened,” Nizam recalled.

“They did not follow any noise rules – every time the club door opened, you’d hear this thumping sound, people would emerge and go shouting down the street, dirtying the area with their empty cans. Crews of vanity vans parked on the roads for shoots inside the club even cooked on the streets,” said Lalita SD, who lives in Chitrapur Society across the road.

Deepali Hadkar, who lives in Kiran, a bungalow in the area, said: “Calls made to the police on several occasions to control the noise proved futile”.

SR Mulgudkar, assistant municipal commissioner (H-West) and one of the recipients of the letter, said: “I will look into the matter. The license for this is issued by the health inspector”.

There are no specific civic rules directed at nightclubs functioning in residential areas.