79-Year-Old Iconic Central Talkies to be Partially Demolished for Renovation into New Business

79-Year-Old Iconic Central Talkies to be Partially Demolished for Renovation into New Business

 Mangaluru: Once upon a time watching movies at your favourite movie theatre was fun and past time. But gone are those days, where now you can watch your favourite blockbuster either on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or other Internet movie channels- and this has hurt the business owners of single screen theatres. In the year 2017, we saw two movie theatres shut down- and the main reason for a low audience and less revenue at these single screen theatres was due to the few multiplex theatre that have sprung in the City malls.(Ref:The End! City’s Platinum Theatre Shuts Down for Good  ) and The End! No More Watching Your Favorite ‘Chitra’ at ‘New Chitra’?  ). A few of the older cinema theatre that have remained in business in Mangaluru are -Jyothi Talkies, Balaji Talkies, Ramakanthi Talkies, Suchitra etc. And since a year, Central Talkies stopped showing movies, and the structure was sitting idle until now.

I still remember seeing the romance film “BOBBY” starring Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia at Central Talkies, while I was in College at St Aloysius College, Mangaluru- and saw that movie 3-4 times. Love was in the air, during our college days- and getting tickets was easy without staying in the queue since one of the family members who own Central Talkies, Prashanth was my neighbour near Sujir CV Nayak Hall, Kadri, Mangaluru- and I also happen to know the present partner of Central Talkies, Sudhir Kamath, who also stayed in the same vicinity. Other than a few other Hindi movies that were screened at Central Talkies, I always used to bunk boring physics and chemistry classes, and watch Hollywood movies at New Chitra talkies, which is now turned into a furniture mall.

Those were fun years during our college days in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s spending our past time watching movies at the single screen theatres. But now, something we so rarely do these days because, well, life. It’s an experience that is overall becoming more rare for basically all but the biggest blockbusters. And it was great. Magnificent, really. But while watching movies during those years, I was acutely aware that part of what was so wonderful about it was the increasing novelty of seeing movies like Sholay, Deewar, etc in theaters. But at present,, there is almost no chance that old movies like these get a wide release in the cinema. Instead, it will be on Netflix, or Amazon Prime Video, or Apple TV+, or the like. And that’s fine! Netflix etc etc are great! But there is something we’re all losing, of our movie going spree during our younger days.

File Photo

It was all about a thousand intangible things — some big, some small, many imperceptible. That’s what made the movie going experience an experience. And yet, I’m still realistic. This model is broken in a way that will never be fixed again for the vast majority of movies (or other types of content as the lines increasingly blur). And while I was watching one of my favourite movie theatre of the past, being partially demolished by a JCB sitting on top of Central Talkies recently, did bring back memories of college days, when we took a bunch of St Agnes College girls to this iconic cinema hall.

Speaking to Team Mangalorean, one of the partners of Central Talkies, Sudhir Kamath said, “My dad K Janardhan Kamath had built Central Talkies in the year 1941, on a 70 cents property. In 1975, the theatre got an extreme make-over, where better facilities, lighting and sound system was added. But when a couple of years ago, after multiplex theatres sprung in the City, the trend among movie-goers to watch their movies in single screen theatres decreased. Therefore, a year ago we stopped screening films at Central Talkies, and we were planning on a different kind of business in the same premises, along with my brother. More details will be furnished once the structure details are finalized”.