Exclusive report! 91-year-old’s desperate attempt to keep his theatre alive

Even at the age of 91,

Rabin Seth

hops on to his bicycle and pedals 2km from his

Girish Park

residence to Kolkata’s

Chhabighar

, the theatre he joined as a youth in 1952. Over the years, he became manager of the single-screen

cinema

established in 1930.

Even though his salary is delivered to his residence after the cinema reopened, Seth still cycles to Chhabighar, just to check the turnout.

“Cinema is my soul,” in an exclusive chat with ETimes explains Seth, who feels that even if there are a handful of viewers, the lights shouldn’t be turned off. “Doing that is a body blow to the industry as well as the staff.

Cinemas

have fought the onslaught of television and video piracy. A little bit of patience is all we need to get back on track,” says the confident nonagenarian.

For some enthusiasts just like Rabin Seth old-world single-screen theatres are the “temples of cinema”. But the truth is that these celluloid temples need much more than prayer to survive their Covid-19-induced ‘The End’. It’s more evident when the film industry is taking big releases directly to streaming sites and hygiene concerns shrinking footfalls further.

But, there’s still hope as several

Bollywood

big-budget films will be releasing in theatres in the coming months. Yet, for several already run-down single-screen theatres, the pandemic threatens to cut their ties with the cinema world. Till then, memories must sustain the decrepit talkies.

Meanwhile, the owner of Chaabighar who also owns two other in Kolkata- Minar and Bijoli - has resurrected plans of converting his theatres to double screens that were aborted due to demonetization. The owner now wants to retain the movie experience at his chain of theatres but do away with the single-screen format. He is hoping that the state government allows single window clearance to turn them into cineplexes.

In 1930, Hari Priya Paul had built the Chhabighar cinema hall. Five years later, he inaugurated Bijoli. Minar was inaugurated after another seven years, on May 2 in 1942 with the film titled ‘Nan’. Paul’s grandson Suranjan, the current owner of the chain, is keen on running the show. “My son, Siddhanth, is a student of cinematography and my daughter, Attisa, is studying management. Like me, they too want to join this profession of movies. All of us want Minar-Bijoli-Chhabighar to continue the tradition of screening movies while reinventing the original format. Keeping in mind the changing viewing patterns, double screens are the best option,” he said.