Stumbling upon a haunted house tale or a spooky place isn’t rare for an average Indian. In many a case, the story would somehow have a colonial connection. Looks like people love to talk about ghosts from the British era! Did you know that there is a haunted mansion and a Rolls Royce in a prime location in Lonavala? Yes, we are referring to Ayesha Villa and the Gold-painted Rolls Royce Silver Shadow that lies rotting in its porch! The Bungalow is said to be from the British era, and some say the same about the car too- which by the way, is a hoax. We’ll tell you why and more…
The Haunted Rolls Royce: What People Say About It
Stories circulating about Ayesha Bunglaw and its Rolls Royce are pretty scary. There are in fact, multiple versions to it. Let’s start with the most convincing one. It says that this bungalow used to belong to a wealthy family (who could afford a Silver shadow back in the day. No surprises!) who had a 17-year-old daughter.
One day, the family was murdered and burnt. The girl, still in her seventeen, was gang-raped and murdered- all in the villa. People say that the villa is now possessed by all of their ghosts and one can hear noises and see figures at night. The spirit of the girl further, is said to live inside the car. (Arguably the most opulent we’ve ever seen a ghost to be!)
The house has been abandoned ever since. As seen in YouTube videos, there is definitely a spooky, dark air to the place- just like any other abandoned building. If we are to use the rational side of our brains, this hardly means the place is haunted. Leave your home for a year, unattended and it will have the same air when you return.
Another version says that the house belonged to a wealthy Christian couple and Ayesha was their daughter. One night, they were attacked and murdered by a group of people. This story, however, doesn’t specify when or how Ayesha was killed. The car owned by the family was abandoned along with the villa.
Both stories lack depth and most likely these ‘haunted mansion’ tales could have been created to prevent the property/car from getting sold. The house sits in a prime location on the old Mumbai-Pune highway, near Khandala. It thus makes sense to assume these to be ‘stop sale’ propaganda. Haunted house sales spread like wildfire and deter people from making purchase decisions.
The Haunted Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Series 2
Now let’s come to the details of the car. Before we start, this used to be a drool-worthy, star car back in its day. It has even starred in the 2004 Bollywood movie Lakeer. The movie had Suneil Shetty in the lead role. It was also a usual sight at expensive and classic car meets in its days of glory.
This is a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Series 2. The Silver Shadow had its production run from 1965 to 1980 and a nip above 30,000 units were made in total. The model was actually a replacement for the Silver Cloud and had significant advantages over it. The Silver Shadow had its production run from 1965 to 1976 while the Silver Shadow II was in production from 1977- 1985. The car here is thus from the late 70s. This dismisses the popular public claims that this haunted Rolls Royce is from the British era. The car wasn’t even made when they were here!
The Silver Shadow was more compact and practical than the Silver Cloud. It had technologies that were considered most-modern in its day like independent hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension, better brakes, and a more refined engine. It was powered by a 6.75L V8 engine (L410) that produced around 537 PS and 1,050 Nm. Interestingly, the final application of this engine was on the Bentley Mulsanne on which it used to generate 512 PS. Rolls Royce models today make do with 6.7L V12 engines.
Circling back to the haunted Silver Shadow, the car has deteriorated so much in the past few years. People visiting the place could have been throwing stones at it ( that’s what they do to ghosts it seems!) and the same has damaged its headlamps, indicators, body panels and glasses. The spirit of ecstacy is long gone and the interiors are in pathetic condition. The current owner was once said to have plans to restore it to full glory. But going by its current condition, the same seems to be difficult.
