One of Bengaluru's most cherished single-screen cinemas will have been demolished, and its history will now be etched in history. A Supreme Court order that makes the building on Lalbagh Main Road be demolished has signed off a long-standing lease dispute that has been in effect since 2008. The property owners have now taken possession of the place with police personnel at the site, and a legal and contractual dispute is at an end.
The demolition of Urvashi Theatre has left generations of cinema lovers emotional. For more than five decades, the theatre was connected to Bengaluru’s film culture and witnessed some of the biggest moments in Kannada cinema. The theatre was opened in 1970 by the great Kannada actor Dr Rajkumar and is a well-known location in its history. Urvashi was as much a cinema hall as it was cinema halls that generations of audiences attended to watch movies, stars and big releases.
The theatre held around 1,100 seats, and it reportedly had screenings of more than 5,000 movies in five languages over its long run. Its location on Lalbagh Main Road made it accessible to audiences from all parts of Bengaluru, and its large screen and sound facilities helped to establish it as one of the city’s premier single-screen venues.
Urvashi Theatre is also special for Kannada cinema as it has hosted several big movies. Shivarajkumar’s A.K. 47 was one of the most well-known movies that had an entire 100 days of theatrical performance at Urvashi Theatre. It was these kinds of screenings that cemented Urvashi as the location for big Kannada movie releases and became a part of Bengaluru’s culture of cinema.
The theatre was also very good in terms of sound technology. At one point, Urvashi even had advanced sound tech that was available only at two single-screen theatres in India. That technological upgrade only solidified its reputation for movie fans who wanted a great theatre experience. For many Bengaluru residents, watching a movie at Urvashi has become more about the venue than it is about the movie itself.
The legal battle between the property and its owner has been on for several years now. Basatti Shetty’s lease reportedly expired in April 2018, and there was a dispute over whether or not the contract should be extended for another three years. Now the Supreme Court has decided that the property owners should take back possession, so demolition work is going to start.
The visuals of the landmark building being taken down have made Kannada cinema fans feel so emotional. Many moviegoers who grew up watching films at Urvashi have memories of the theatre, first-day-first-show days, family trips and big releases. The demolition is a loss of a building but of a physical landmark connected to Bengaluru’s cinematic history.
The timing is also significant because the demolition comes just before the release of Yash’s highly anticipated film Toxic. Had the theatre been operational, it would have been one of the major venues for the release in Bengaluru. Yash has an enormous fan base in Karnataka and a big movie like Toxic would have been expected to make huge crowds at popular single-screen theatres.
The disappearance of Urvashi also speaks to the bigger change in the theatre world in Bengaluru. Many of those historic single-screen cinemas have closed or been renovated, and more and more are faced with competition from modern multiplexes and changing audience habits. Many multiplexes offer high-end facilities and multiple screens, but Urvashi had a cultural identity that was very much a part of the local space.
The demolition ends a chapter of cinema in Kannada cinema. From its inception in 1970 by Dr Rajkumar to the long sequence of big movies and technological enhancements and an unforgettable audience response to it, Urvashi Theatre was one of the landmark cinema halls in Bengaluru, and as the building disappears, the memories of the movie-goers who saw their favourite movies in it will live on forever.
