Thousands of single-screen cinemas as soon as dotted India’s panorama. The emergence of multiplexes led to their sluggish demise and now, there are only a few hundred of them left. Cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi has been chronicling the final vestiges of a dying custom.

India’s single-screen cinemas had been grand constructions, constructed to accommodate massive audiences and boasted various architectural kinds.

Chaturvedi started his undertaking in 2019, and has photographed 950 theatres throughout 15 states to date.

“In the past 25 years, the number of single-screen cinemas has dwindled from 24,000 to 9,000,” he says. Some have been demolished to create space for malls and buildings, others are in ruins as they’ve misplaced their shoppers.

“These theatres were the building blocks of India’s cinema-viewing culture. They helped people enjoy films even in the smallest towns across India,” Chaturvedi says.

The concept of the undertaking struck him when he took a visit to his grandparents’ residence in Uttar Pradesh state’s Allahabad metropolis.

There, he revisited Lakshmi Talkies, a theatre he had frequented as a toddler, however was now shut. In the crumbling construction was a statue of a goddess after whom the theatre was named, however she was coated in mud and was lacking an arm.

Chaturvedi says it made him realise how town was dropping a lot of its historical past to urbanisation. From there started his quest to doc India’s single-screen cinemas.

Niranjan Talkies in Uttar Pradesh was constructed within the Forties however shuttered its doorways round 1989 as a result of a dispute over the property.

In its heydays, it was a formidable construction with its spacious interiors, artwork deco design and sunburst mosaic flooring. The theatre is in ruins now however traces of its grandeur peek out in locations which have survived the ravages of time.

“It is believed to be the first air-conditioned cinema in Allahabad city,” says Chaturvedi.

“Locals told me how their grandparents would gather outside the exit towards the end of a film so that they could enjoy the air-conditioned air as people left the theatre.”

Ganga Talkies in Rajasthan state is alleged to have been constructed by the ruling king of the time.

The theatre has been shut for the previous 20 years, however in dusty corners and on crumbling partitions, one finds a wealth of memorabilia, together with the unique posters of Shammi Kapoor’s 1961 hit Junglee and Nargis’ final movie, Raat Aur Din (1967).

Vijayanand Talkies within the western state of Maharashtra was in-built 1914.

Local legend has it that Dadasaheb Phalke – who made Raja Harishchandra, India’s first full-length function movie – used to display black and white movies on a white fabric tied between two bushes on a plot of land close to this theatre.

“Apparently, people were terrified seeing the moving images, and thought it was a result of black magic. So they trashed Dadasaheb, broke his projector and burnt his films,” Chaturvedi says.

“The local police had to conduct drives informing people that he was showing a new technology called cinema and that it was not jaadu tona (black magic).”

Royal Talkies in Mumbai is positioned in an space that was referred to as ‘Play House’ within the 1800s, as a result of the stretch had many theatres for performs and musicals. They had been transformed into film halls after cinema got here to India within the 1900s.

“The theatres that are still standing have green room areas and stages behind the screen,” says Chaturvedi. “At Royal Talkies I chanced upon two old letterheads from 1950 and 1962. They had the first and only physical evidence I’ve found of the term ‘Play House’ being used for the area,” he provides.

In the erstwhile princely state of Wadhwan in Gujarat, there stands a dilapidated construction with a solitary ticket window that has an interesting backstory.

Legend has it that the king of Wadhwan booked a cinématographe – an early movie projector invented by the Lumiere Brothers – for 10,000 rupees ($121; £99) on a visit to Mumbai (then referred to as Bombay) in 1896.

Ten years later the projector arrived. It was put in within the open air theatre, which turned one of many first ones in India to display silent films, in line with Chaturvedi. Today solely the ticket window of the theatre exists.

Bhagwat Chitra Mandir in Sholapur metropolis in Maharashtra is a grand theatre in-built 1935.

The homeowners declare that singer Lata Mangeshkar carried out in public for first time right here on the age of 5.

They constructed three extra theatres throughout the similar compound. “The owner likes to say that they were the founders of the multiplex concept in India,” Chaturvedi says.

These three theatres, Chhaya Mandir, Kala Mandir and Uma Mandir, had been constructed by WM Namjoshi, who designed shut to 3 dozen single-screen theatres in India.

“The owner told me how there was a time when all four theatres would run to capacity, and he and his father would throw crackers from the roof to disperse huge crowds clamouring for tickets outside,” Chaturvedi reminisces.

Nishat Cinema in Mumbai was shut for a very long time for renovation and opened its doorways not too long ago to display Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback hit Pathaan.

The theatre ran so full that the homeowners needed to supply a ‘Houseful’ board from a neighbouring theatre, as they hadn’t used theirs in many years and did not know the place it was.

“Many folks messaged me after the film launched, saying that it had revived single-screen theatres in India. And all I may say to them is: what occurs after Pathaan? Do the theatres return to languishing in obscurity?”

All pictures are topic to copyright

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