Bengaluru, 31 July

It is curtains down for Frazer Town’s famous landmark ‘Everest Theatre’. Constructed in the 1930s, the theatre in the heart of the City will make way for an authorised service centre of a car manufacturer.

“It is sad to see the landmark of our area fade away, said Tony Singh, a long-time resident of Ratan Singh Road in Frazer Town and a movie buff. “We, as children and later as youngsters, watched most of the hit English films here and it has given us a lot of wonderful memories.’’

This landmark was built by civil contractor Maistry Chowriappa. Thirty years later, it was bought by Madanlal Kshatriya and his family has been running the theatre since.

Everest Theatre used to screen Hindi, English and Kannada films and was flocked by locals who used to come with their families. The balcony had 146 seats and stall had 400 seats and the eight-decade-old theatre had a canteen too. The theatre last screened a movie two weeks ago.

Praveen Kumar, a resident of Frazer Town, said, “Everest was one of the few single-screen theatres in the city. Catching a movie at Everest Theatre had the charm and excitement of the pre-Netflix and pre-multiplex days. Everything about this cinema hall was completely old-school, from their ticket counters to their movie snacks (no nachos and hotdogs here, just good old popcorn and soda).”

Jacob Surendra, a resident of Hutchins Road who has watched many movies here with his friends and family over the decades, said, “This is what development does, it takes away the old Bangalore charm. The theatre had an enclosure in the balcony, which means you get some privacy. We used to save to buy the expensive balcony ticket,” said the retired bank officer. “I have seen some of the best Tamil, Hindi and English movies of my time in this theatre. It is sad to see the theatre shut down.’’

The inconspicuous death of the single-screen theatres in Bengaluru began way before the pandemic and with the arrival of multiplexes in the late 2000s. In 2002, Galaxy Theatre was shut down to make way for a commercial space, Plaza was razed in 2005 for the Metro Rail, Symphony is now Fame Shankarnag, a multiplex, and Lido has become INOX.

Bengaluru once had over 149 theatres, with Kempegowda Road having the most of them. Back in 1896, the city had its first theatre, named Elgin. At Sharada theatre, morning movies were a huge trend. —Salar News