 "Shanthi Theatre: The screen goes blank in Chennai")
For years, these cavernous halls in Chennai peddled stuff that made moviegoers forget the mundaneness of their lives. Indeed, these were the platforms from which filmstars like M G Ramachandran, J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi captured the hearts of people and later translated that popularity into political power. Ironical, therefore, that these temples of imagination have today come face to face with the realities of life.
The entire concept of a day out at the theatres has changed from the time when these halls resounded with songs and dialogues. “Ten years ago, we realised that people wanted a mix of fun, food and entertainment,” says Abirami Ramanathan, managing director of Abirami Mega Mall, a mall-cum-family entertainment centre. The curtains naturally fell on establishments that were unable to meet such expectations. There were around 2,400 cinema halls in Tamil Nadu three decades ago. Today, there are 800, including the new multiplexes.
The latest to succumb is the five-decade-old Shanthi Theatre, an iconic structure in the city then known as Madras. Located on a one-acre plot at Anna Salai, Shanthi Theatre once seated 1,212 spectators. This week, the owners — the family of the late actor Shivaji Ganesan — entered into an agreement with real estate developer Akshaya Homes to convert it into a commercial and entertainment complex. The modern avatar will provide entertainment for every age group, says Chitty Babu, chief executive of Akshaya Homes, with food court, retail stores, gaming, entertainment and movies.
While Shanthi Theatre will still associate itself with the silver screen, many other halls have divorced themselves from their reel existence. Nagesh and Kamadhenu, for instance, now host weddings, Megala is a residential complex, while Paragon, Wellington and Anand have turned into office space. Poor Gaiety Theatre’s fate was to become a parking lot.
Money was the root of all this "evil". Shanthi Theatre, inaugurated on January 12, 1961 by K Kamaraj, then the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, was not fetching the expected returns (tickets were priced between Rs 10 and Rs 120), besides being a burden in terms of the maintenance expenses of both the hall and the projection paraphernalia. Ramkumar, the eldest Ganesan scion, says that the building will be pulled down, though the complex that will come up will retain the Shanthi name.
Management is also crucial, according to Naghu Chidambaram, the owner of Kamla, an old theatre in Kodambakkam. “Theatres need strong management apart from money,” he says. “Without constant renewal and appropriate management, any theatre, old or new, will face the same fate.” Kamla is one of the few of the old-world halls to have survived. It started its operations in 1972 and has been regularly upgrading its set-up, including the sound system and the infrastructure.
However, not all film exhibitors have the funds to upgrade and renovate their halls. With distribution costs, especially for new films, and upgrade budgets getting more burdensome, it is difficult for many theatre owners to stay relevant. A large proportion of the audience, especially the target clientele of the old theatres that charged moderate ticket prices in the range of Rs 30-50 for new films, has turned to watching films on pirated DVDs, frequently even before the movie reaches nearby.
For such viewers, multiplexes are out of reach. “These people cannot afford the multiplex tickets,” says Rathnam, a DVD rental owner. “They also can’t afford to take their families for a show in the normal theatres. So, DVDs represent a value-for-money experience.”
They may not be every film lover’s choice, but multiplexes have hit the prospects of single-screen theatres. “We get a lot of choices at multiplexes,” says a filmgoer at the Mayajaal multiplex. “Besides, film technology has become extremely sensual, and without proper acoustics and screens, the viewer will not get the total experience." The old theatres had their charm, but both technology and new needs have overtaken their utility, leaving them to seek out alternative avenues just to be able to live another day.
The entire concept of a day out at the theatres has changed from the time when these halls resounded with songs and dialogues. “Ten years ago, we realised that people wanted a mix of fun, food and entertainment,” says Abirami Ramanathan, managing director of Abirami Mega Mall, a mall-cum-family entertainment centre. The curtains naturally fell on establishments that were unable to meet such expectations. There were around 2,400 cinema halls in Tamil Nadu three decades ago. Today, there are 800, including the new multiplexes.
The latest to succumb is the five-decade-old Shanthi Theatre, an iconic structure in the city then known as Madras. Located on a one-acre plot at Anna Salai, Shanthi Theatre once seated 1,212 spectators. This week, the owners — the family of the late actor Shivaji Ganesan — entered into an agreement with real estate developer Akshaya Homes to convert it into a commercial and entertainment complex. The modern avatar will provide entertainment for every age group, says Chitty Babu, chief executive of Akshaya Homes, with food court, retail stores, gaming, entertainment and movies.
While Shanthi Theatre will still associate itself with the silver screen, many other halls have divorced themselves from their reel existence. Nagesh and Kamadhenu, for instance, now host weddings, Megala is a residential complex, while Paragon, Wellington and Anand have turned into office space. Poor Gaiety Theatre’s fate was to become a parking lot.
Money was the root of all this "evil". Shanthi Theatre, inaugurated on January 12, 1961 by K Kamaraj, then the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, was not fetching the expected returns (tickets were priced between Rs 10 and Rs 120), besides being a burden in terms of the maintenance expenses of both the hall and the projection paraphernalia. Ramkumar, the eldest Ganesan scion, says that the building will be pulled down, though the complex that will come up will retain the Shanthi name.
Management is also crucial, according to Naghu Chidambaram, the owner of Kamla, an old theatre in Kodambakkam. “Theatres need strong management apart from money,” he says. “Without constant renewal and appropriate management, any theatre, old or new, will face the same fate.” Kamla is one of the few of the old-world halls to have survived. It started its operations in 1972 and has been regularly upgrading its set-up, including the sound system and the infrastructure.
However, not all film exhibitors have the funds to upgrade and renovate their halls. With distribution costs, especially for new films, and upgrade budgets getting more burdensome, it is difficult for many theatre owners to stay relevant. A large proportion of the audience, especially the target clientele of the old theatres that charged moderate ticket prices in the range of Rs 30-50 for new films, has turned to watching films on pirated DVDs, frequently even before the movie reaches nearby.
For such viewers, multiplexes are out of reach. “These people cannot afford the multiplex tickets,” says Rathnam, a DVD rental owner. “They also can’t afford to take their families for a show in the normal theatres. So, DVDs represent a value-for-money experience.”
They may not be every film lover’s choice, but multiplexes have hit the prospects of single-screen theatres. “We get a lot of choices at multiplexes,” says a filmgoer at the Mayajaal multiplex. “Besides, film technology has become extremely sensual, and without proper acoustics and screens, the viewer will not get the total experience." The old theatres had their charm, but both technology and new needs have overtaken their utility, leaving them to seek out alternative avenues just to be able to live another day.