After Multiplex, Cauvery theatre to be razed

Cauvery theatre may be razed soon
The Asian Age

Bangalore Oct. 11: The Cauvery theatre which was attacked on Monday by the volunteers of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike, is all set to be demolished. Work on the demolition will begin from Friday, says the owner of the theatre, Mr Prakash.

Speaking to The Asian Age, Mr Prakash who is a partner in the theatre, said the decision to demolish it was taken at a meeting of family members.“‘The present confusion in the film industry has added to our problems. We have not been able to pay the power bills or the salariesof our staff for the last three months. We cannot run the theatre on such losses and we cannot swallow the humiliation of not paying the salaries of our employees. So we have decided to demolish the theatre and work on this will start from Friday,” Mr Prakash said.

According to him the economics of the theatre went particularly haywire since the introduction of the seven week moratorium on screening of non-Kannada films. “Our occupation rate has fallen as low as six to 12 per cent for each show and we are also paying distributors to procure prints. When there is no income from the theatre, how can we hope to maintain it and pay the salaries of our staff. We therefore had a family meeting and reluctantly decided to demolish the theatre which is even today considered a showpiece in Bangalore. Our father Narasimhaiah built it with his sweat and blood and with many aspirations. But we cannot combat video piracy and run old Kannada films. Although we had requested the Kannada film distributors and producers to release new Kannada films in the theatre on a rental basis, they refused to give us the prints and asked for huge advances which would have been uneconomical for us,” he explained.

Talking about Monday’s attack by KRV volunteers, Mr Prakash said that the attack was most unexpected, as he had agreed to screen the film only after the distributor had obtained the prior permission of the KFCC to screen it. “We released the film here 46 days after its release in Mumbai. But we were not spared,” he said ruefully.