 Plaza Theatre in Bangalore | |
 | |
| Address | M.G Road Bangalore India |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 12°58′30″N77°36′22″E / 12.9751°N 77.606°E /12.9751; 77.606 |
| Current use | Metro Station |
| Opened | 1936 |
| Closed | 2005 |
| Years active | 1936-2005 |
Plaza was afilm theatre located in the city ofBangalore,India. It used to be on M. G. Road in theBangalore Cantonment area. It was built in 1936 and mostly screenedHollywood movies.
Arcot Narrain Swamy Mudaliar was a contractor who built many buildings inBengaluru including theAttara Kacheri (the present premises of theKarnataka High Court).[1] From the money he earned out of it, he purchased a number of properties on M. G. Road including a 17,000 sq ft (1,600 m2). 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 toGreat Britain to understand how a great film theatre should look like.[2] They came back and constructed Plaza theatre in the year 1936 modeling it after thePiccadilly Circus inLondon.[3] The first film to be screened here wasThe Broadway Melody in April 1936.[3] The theatre also had a wooden dance floor which was used by British soldiers forball dancing.[4] Initial ticket prices ranged from eightannas for the front seats to 1 rupee and 12 annas for the balcony's highest seat, calledThe Dress Circle.[5] The theatre also had a bar which served drinks to patrons who came to watch movies.
Movies that have been screened here includeHans Christian Andersen,The Court Jester,Artists and Models andThe Ten Commandments. The latter ran for 44 straight weeks making it the longest running movie in the theatre.[6] 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 theMaharaja of Mysore,Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar and his entourage.[4] Initially, the theatre was associated withMGM Studios screening movies likeGone with the Wind before moving on toParamount pictures to screen movies likeRoman Holiday,An Officer and a Gentleman and theJames Bond movies.[6]
The last film that was screened here wasMeet the Fockers on 17 March 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 Ballari purchased this property and wanted to build a shopping mall in its place. However, theBruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara palike refused permission to build a shopping mall. The land has since been acquired for theBangalore Metro project and will house the Plaza theatre station on the East-West Corridor route.[8]