Juhu's last single-screen cinema to make way for multiplex-mall

Fifty years since Juhu's Chandan cinema house opened with Raj Kapoor's film Bobby, it's not just curtains down but walls down as well.

- Ateeq Shaikh

MUMBAI: The demolition of one of the last single-screen theatres in the city has commenced to make space for a mall.

Developed by businessman Baijanath Joshi and named after his wife Chandrakanta, whom he fondly called Chandan, the theatre has been a go-to movie hall for generations when there was only one multiplex in the city-G7 at Bandra. Opened in 1974, it was shut in March 2017 due to its dilapidated condition. During the cinema house's heyday, if movie goers were lucky, they could spot several celebrities who lived in the vicinity and came to watch the occasional film at Chandan.

"Demolition began around 10 to 15 days ago," said one of the staffers at the demolition site, who added that "something" was "coming up in the space".