Lights go out at historic Delhi cinema after 84 years
NEW DELHI — After years of slow but steady decline the colonial-era Regal cinema, a New Delhi institution, is enjoying a late flourishing—just as it is about to close its doors.
Manager Roop Ghai says families have been flocking to the crumbling white building at the heart of the Indian capital since learning that it is shutting down, a victim of competition from the gleaming multiplex cinemas springing up around the city.
“People are coming in much larger numbers than they have in recent years, especially older people, who have many memories linked to this cinema hall,” he said at the Regal, which closes on Friday.
The Regal is one of India’s oldest cinema halls — when it first opened its doors in the 1930s, the country was still a British colony.
In the ensuing decades it hosted everyone from the last British viceroy Louis Mountbatten to independent India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehrulal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi as well as Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan.
But many young Indians now prefer the air-conditioned comfort of the out-oftown multiplexes, which offer a far greater choice of movies than the old single-screen cinemas.
The closure will be the end of the road for Ramesh Kumar, who has worked as a projectionist for 44 years, 23 of them at the Regal.
He regretted the cinema’s closure because unlike modern multiplexes, it was affordable for all.
Tickets for a matinee at Regal cinema cost as little as 100 rupees ($1.50), going up to 200 rupees for a prime “box” seat — around half of what multiplexes typically charge.
Audiences can expect to pay as much as 1,200 rupees at a sleek, suburban multiplex.
But he said the building had not been properly maintained of late.
“No one paid (enough) attention to it. If someone had taken care of it, we wouldn’t have reached the situation where we are today,” he said.
Ghai, the Regal’s manager, said the cinema had been full of fans in recent days, from young people taking selfies to older couples wanting to show it to their children.
“It feels like parting with a family member,” he said.