Curtain falls on the romance of India's single-screen cinemas

Bengaluru's Urvashi Cinema, a once-grand 1,200-seat movie theater, is being demolished, adding to the list of India's vanishing single-screen cinemas. Manjunath, who has been watching the theater's decline, recalled the golden days when the adjacent shop bustled with snack buyers. Hemant Chaturvedi, a photographer, has documented the decay of 1,350 single-screen theaters across 1,000 towns over seven years.

The old theaters offered a communal, interactive experience, with fans cheering, clapping, and shouting during movies. However, the charm of these cinemas is fading as they are demolished, converted into multiplexes, or left to decay. India had around 14,000 single-screen halls in the 1980s, but only about 2,000 remain today. While some old halls have been restored, the new multiplexes offer a different experience with amenities like air conditioning, reclining seats, and food delivery.

Despite the decline, some single-screen theaters like Mukunda Cinemas in Bengaluru and Regal Cinema in Mumbai still draw crowds, particularly for early morning showings.