Queen of dance bars, Deepa

The tattered ruins of Deepa Bar bear testimony to the story of Mumbai’s famous and infamous dance bars. On the verge of extinction, dance bars have been rescued and given a new lease of life by the Supreme Court but Mumbai’s most famous, the Deepa Bar, is long gone, and dead.

It was a showpiece. Frequented by the rich and famous, it’s patrons used to shower lakhs of rupees on bar girls dancing to the tune of famous Bollywood numbers. Today, it wears a deserted look. With no lights, no music, no dance floors, Deepa Bar is still testimony to the lively atmosphere it once carried. This was the place where a bar girl known as Tarannum Khan got the nickname ‘crorepati bar dancer’. This after one of the patrons showered lakhs of rupees on her one night.

Deepa Bar was one of hundreds of bars which was locked after Maharashtra home minister RR Patil took the decision to close down dance bars in the state in August 2005. The bar was started in the mid-1980s and was finally closed in 2005. The bar also came under the scanner of the Mumbai Crime Branch after it came to be known that some of those involved in cricket betting frequented the bar.

Cricketers, Bollywood celebrities, underworld operatives and Tarannum Khan came under the police radar. They were questioned and it came to light that Tarannum who lived in a bungalow in Lokhandwala was one of the most popular bar dancers with high profile visitors. Tarannum’s name hit the headlines and she became the face of Deepa Bar.

Deepa bar’s owner Sudhakar Shetty later shut down the bar and in its place opened a Yoga centre. The hoarding of Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was put up on the front door. The bar was spread over 8,000 sq ft and was the oldest property of Shetty’s parents. That’s why he doesn’t want to sell it.