The pandemic has hit businesses hard and the entertainment industry has also had to bear the brunt of it. One more South Mumbai cinema hall will now soon give way to a mall. Dreamland Cinema, situated in Grant Road, is going under redevelopment. The owner of the cinema Yunus Supariwala, when contacted, informs, "It is going to redevelopment and a mall will be built here but there will be a small theatre which will continue screening of films". Supariwala had taken over
Dreamland Cinema
35 years ago. "When I took over the cinema hall, 'Tezaab' was the first film that was screened there and it ran for 50 weeks. The last film that played here was
Tiger Shroff’s 'Baaghi 3'," he shares emotionally.
Dreamland Cinema was one of the more prominent theatres in Mumbai for film releases during the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Films like Shah Rukh Khan’s 'Baazigar', Jaya Prada’s 'Sargam', and Madhuri Dixit’s 'Tezaab' were screened there. A film critic, who used to frequent the hall, adds, "This theatre made
Madhuri Dixit,
Shah Rukh Khan, and Jaya Pradha into stars as all these films ran for several weeks and drew an audience from all around the main city of Mumbai. 'Bhuvan Shome', one of the first art films, was screened in a matinee show here".
Dreamland Cinema was originally called
Krishna and the last film to be screened at the theatre was
Sunil Dutt and Nutan's 'Milan'. It was with Ramesh Sippy's 'Andaz' that the theatre came to be known as Dreamland Cinema. Some of the single-screen cinemas that have shut shop in South Mumbai are Ganga Jamuna, Diana, Daulat, Taj, Swastik Naaz, Strand, Shalimar, Capitol, New Empire, Moti, Rex, Majestic, and Lotus.