Dadar's Chitra Cinema, one of the city's first AC theatres, is all set to shut down today after seven decades owing to its poor business. The popular theatre ran to packed house for days in 1983 when Jackie Shroff's Hero released and now 36 years later, his son Tiger Shroff's film Student of the Year 2, will be the last day last show for the 550-seat Chitra Cinema.
Third generation owner and current proprietor Dara Mehta told a leading daily, "Single screens are hardly doing any business today. While weekends would witness good footfalls, we would hardly have any patrons on weekdays. We haven't yet decided whether it will be given for redevelopment or let out to a multiplex chain." Not to forget, the cinema theatre which runs almost empty these days had people thronging in October 1961 when Shammi Kapoor's Junglee released. He further reminisced, "I was very young then, but I remember that Junglee ran for over 25 weeks."
In fact, the single-screen theatre lined up several hit films like Sholay (1975), Deewar (1975) and other blockbusters followed over the decades. "We have always kept up with technology. We renovated the theatre around 20 years ago, and recently again in 2014. But today, the online streaming platforms have affected our business, too. Earlier, movies were the only source of entertainment. Now, people have countless options on OTT platforms," Dara added.
Furthermore, trade analyst Amod Mehra told the daily that Chitra had the distinction of the first air-conditioned theatres in Mumbai. "Not many are aware but it also had a small preview theatre during the '70s and '80s. Since there were three popular studios around — Ranjit Movietone, Rooptara and Shree Sound — filmmakers would book the preview theatre to see rushes of their movies. It's sad that single screens are slowly fading away," he concluded while remembering its days of glory.
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