Excl: CINTAA Tower to be inaugurated today

CINTAA

(Cine & TV Artistes Association) is about to inaugurate their new property

CINTAA Tower

in Andheri. The CINTAA Tower is a long awaited dream for CINTAA members, a passion project that aims to bring all key resources under one roof for the association. The association looks after the interests of film and TV actors and this new property promises to be a one-stop-shop to necessitate many requirements and welfare of the members.
Just hours before the CINTAA Tower's inauguration, actor Amit Behl, who is the General Secretary of the association, spoke to ETimes, revealing key insights into realising of this dream project.

Amit says, "I can’t take any credit. I am just fulfilling the dreams of all the great artistes of yesteryear. I am fortunate enough to be in the position of General Secretary of CINTAA and the treasurer of Cine Artistes Welfare Trust as this historic event is happening in my tenure. I am glad that our committee has been instrumental – with late legends likeAmjad Khan, Dara Singh and Ram Mohan leading the way and seniors like Mithun Chakraborty, Johny Lever and Asha Parekh putting these dreams into reality. We are very fortunate that Asha Parekh ji is coming to inaugurate the tower. She has been the president of CINTAA for almost 8 years and has also been the treasurer of the trust for such a long time."

Behl acknowledges that the last six to seven months have been very stressful for the association because they are all actors – they don’t really understand the logistics of construction and real estate related processes.

Talking about the beginning of the project Behl states, "Dilip Kumar and Aamir Khan laid the foundation stone for the tower in 2011. I came on to the CINTAA committee only in 2015. We had a lot of issues. The contract was given to a certain builder and he was not able to complete it. There were issues with the collector's land. The charity commissioner of the association kept on changing. Our trustees were different, too."
Despite the delays, the association's members pushed for the project to move on. Behl describes their efforts, "The building’s skeleton was erected. The proverbial flesh was needed to be added along with repairing any damage done to the building during the delays. The main concern was - how exactly should the building's look be. Finalizing the designs and locking approvals on quotations from various companies involved was another challenge. Then we lost almost two years because of COVID. Then in October 2022, the association decided to adopt war footing for thd completion of the project. We had the FSI (municipal permission for construction) for more floors but the skeleton that was ready was one plus five and basement."

Behl acknowledges that the association's primary task is to manage money that has to be spent on the welfare of needy members. Any delays in the CINTAA Tower project would mean the money that needed to go to the welfare would be affected. Behl adds, "So, we decided to get into it and complete the tower on priority." Revealing more about the building's infrastructure, Behl says, "Running and maintaining an auditorium in Mumbai is not easy, so, we got in touch with Veda Factory, who run regular auditoriums in Aaram Nagar and promote a lot of theatre. We leased out the tower's third and fourth floors to production houses for small shoots and corporate shoots. The fifth floor houses our office with boardroom, reading room, small welfare room and a cafeteria. There’s a basement for parking."
The project will also result in the construction of a retirement home for needy actors and senior citizens. Behl reveals, "Vikram Gokhale ji had donated a land before he passed away and the Mumbai Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal in Pune. The idea was to complete this building first and then work in tandom with the Mumbai Chitrapat Mahamandal because these are adjoining plots. We had to make a detailed plan, request the state government for the right subsidy so that our senior members could have a old age home. It will also double as a Guru Kutir type of a place, where our members can seek guidance from the seniors to prepare for a role and rehearse."
Actress Preeti Sapru is now the chairperson of the trust. Behl adds, "She has been instrumental in getting us an OC (Occupation Certificate) for the building and it has happened very fast. We are going to approach the Hon CM of Maharashtra for creating low cost housing for actors because most shoots are now primarily moving out of Mumbai. Staying in Mumbai has become too expensive. The association feels that the housing project should be built somewhere between Mira Road and Virar. A majority of daily shoots are happening on that stretch of Mumbai's outskirts. We’re building this next project, step by step. We are preparing a proper presentation to approach corporate funding under the CSR initiative."
The inauguration of CINTAA Tower is scheduled to take place today. Behl reveals, "We have invited everybody to attend. Mithun Da was very happy when we spoke on the phone. Once the building is ready, we will make a new presentation and approach all our A-lister stars, senior actors, junior artistes and all kinds of artistes to donate some money to the trust."