Kugaon Fort + Palasdeo Temple :)

Reason to Smile: The movie made its roar in the Marathi film industry with all new faces as very sensitive and challenging characters as their debut. I have only heard about the movie and its feel shot at the backdrop of scenic adventure beautified by Kugav Fort near Solapur. I had seen them too in some of their promos on TV. While it looked exuberantly vibrant and beautiful, it was time to see whether it gives the same impact in real lights too ;)

So without a doubt, there are number of nature lovers like me who had the same thought running on their minds. Ironically the place becomes just more popular only because its got highlighted in some movie. Or else Kugaon Fort was always there - just that it got visible to the public eye after 56 years of its existence !! Because all this while it was submerged under the crystal clear waters of River Bhima of Kugaon Village. It has significantly no traces of its charm on the web. So, it was surely not google this time to locate the place. Just that 8 crazy people met, hired a Tavera and headed off to Solapur district to welcome the heat and the adventure :P The fort is about 350 kms from Mumbai and is located at the remote village of now known as Kalashi.


Here's a brief story that I know of - July 1976 heavy floods on the banks of River Bhima took over a lot of villages, forts temples of Kugaon leading to endless destruction. The village and the temples was gifted to Devrao Inamdar along with 5 other nearby villages by the Nizam. Devrao Inamdar had built this fort in the middle of river Bhima which also had a small connecting foot path to the shore that reaches the village. During the floods that strolled between 1956 & 1961 the villagers apparently took shelter in the fort. However eventually the fort also became the victim of the floods and got totally buried in the river leaving just some of its remains as a dilapidated structure visible to the public now. Courtesy - Shashikant Dumre from our trek group. If anyone wishes to know more details, he is your guy :)

Palasdeo Temple is again another beautifully carved and typically woven with sculptures with a broad day light canvas that gives you a modern look-alike feel of any South Indian pilgrimage flashed in some movie. This is situated near Pune.

All in all a very fantastic creation of art and architecture, these places are worth a visit.

All the pics on uploaded on FB :) Keep sharing, Keep Smiling :)