Plaza Theatre (Bangalore)

Plaza is a film theatre located in the city of Bangalore, India. It lies on the M. G. Road in the Bangalore Cantonment area. It was built in 1936 and mostly screens Hollywood movies.

History

Arcot Narrain Swamy Mudaliar was a contractor who built many buildings in Bangalore including the "Attara Kacheri" (the present premises of the Karnataka High Court)."Now it's curtains on Plaza theatre", Print edition of The Times of India, Bangalore edition, Page 3, dated 2005-03-11] From the money he earned out of it, he purchased a number of properties on M. G. Road including a 17,000 sq. ft. property over which the Plaza theatre was eventually built. His grandsons, A S Krishnamoorthy and Rajamanickam Velu wanted to construct a film theatre on this property ,where they were formerly running a furniture business and went to Great Britain to understand how a great film theatre should look like.cite web|title= Thanks... for the memory!|author=Anand Parthasarathy|work=Online Edition of The Hindu, dated 2003-09-26|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2003/09/26/stories/2003092601290100.htm|accessdate=2007-09-12] They came back and constructed this theatre in the year 1936 modeling it after the Piccadilly Circus in London.cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/05/15/stories/2003051500860300.htm|work=Online Edition of The Hindu, dated 2003-05-15|author=Pradeep Sebastien|title=The lone ranger|accessdate=2007-09-12] The first film to be screened here was The Broadway Melody in April 1936. The theatre also had a wooden dance floor which was used by English soldiers for ball dancing.cite web|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/mar202005/i7.asp|work=Online Edition of The Deccan Herald, dated 2005-03-20|title=It’s curtains for Plaza theatre|accessdate=2007-09-12] Initial ticket prices ranged from eight annas for the front seats to 1 rupee and 12 annas for the balcony's highest seat called as "The Dress Circle".cite web|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/mar282005/metro9.asp|work=Online Edition of The Deccan Herald, dated 2005-03-28|title=Curtain call for Plaza|author=Janardhan Roye|accessdate=2007-09-12] The theatre also had a bar which served drinks to the patrons who came to watch movies here.

Movies

Movies that have been screened here include Hans Christian Andersen, The Court Jester, Artists and Models and The Ten Commandments which ran for 44 straight weeks making it the longest running movie in the theatre.cite web|title=Final fade-out|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2005/03/30/stories/2005033001270100.htm|author=Hemangini Gupta|work=Online Edition of The Hindu, dated 2005-03-30|accessdate=2007-09-12] Loads of school children were brought to the theatre to watch this movie and a special personal screening of the movie was arranged in the year 1959 for the Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar and his entourage. Initially, the theatre was associated with MGM Studios screening movies like Gone with the wind before moving on to Paramount pictures to screen movies like Roman Holiday, An Officer and a Gentleman and the James Bond movies.

Closure

The last film that was screened here was Meet the Fockers on March 17, 2005. The Narrain family sold the theatre since their children, all professionals,did not wish to carry on the family business. A mining investor from Bellary purchased this property and wanted to build a shopping mall in its place. However, the Bangalore City Corporation refused permission to build a shopping mall. The land has since been proposed to be acquired for the Bangalore Metro project and will house the Plaza theatre station on the East-West Corridor route.cite web|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/feb132006/city1929532006212.asp|work=Online Edition of The Deccan Herald, dated 2006-02-13|title=Plaza to be acquired for elevated Metro station|author=Shubha Narayan|accessdate=2007-09-12]

Notes