Apropos our news item dated August 21, 2021, captioned ‘Calcutta’s Iconic Paradise Cinema To Down Shutters Permanently?’, it has been brought to our notice that the cinema may actually not close down for good. There is a chance that the owners of Paradise might follow the example of Prachi cinema in Calcutta. They have another 30 years of the lease for Paradise left.
Prachi cinema reopened on 19th August in a new look. It has utilised the ground floor to set up a franchise of a retail chain. The single-screen cinema originally had 784 seats. That was reduced to 500 in 2016. The seating capacity now is only 200.
On the other hand, the city’s Rathindra cinema in the Sodepur area has taken a decision to shut down permanently. The owners, who had spent Rs. 1 crore on the interiors and equipment, have dismantled the seats, screen, sound system etc. They are planning to use the space for commercial purposes. Rathindra had two screens, of which one was shut down in 2019. The other auditorium was renovated extensively. The seating capacity for the renovated auditorium was reduced to 174. The owners of Rathindra tried to reopen twice during the lockdown but they got no returns due to a majority of the films being premiered on OTT platforms. That prompted them to think innterms of selling off all the cinema property and converting it into a commercial space. Of course, the love for cinema may still prompt them to retain one auditorium, according to Ranadip Singha Roy of Rathindra.
Paradise has 1,119 seats. If the Prachi model is followed by Bengal Properties, owners of Paradise, they might have a small auditorium on the top, with a commercial set-up on the ground floor. According to Sunit Singh of Bengal Properties, “There are no talks at all about selling the cinema.”