The End: Old cinema halls turn shopping malls

The End: Old cinema halls turn shopping malls
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Many youngsters might have not been aware that the most crowded Alankar Plaza at Majestic Circle on Kempegowda Road used to be a cinema hall once. This was among the first theatres in the city to be demolished to build a shopping complex.

The latest to close down is Plaza on MG Road. Blame it on the advent of multiplexes or a dip in the movie culture, its curtains for more than 20 cinema halls in the city. While many have already been converted into shopping malls, a few are witnessing hectic construction activity in boom-time Bangalore.

The film industry says that lack of good cinema has made these cinemas shut down. Converting a theatre into a shopping mall or a hotel is more fetching as most of the cinemas are centrally situated, they admit.

A shopkeeper at Alankar Plaza says the shopping complex has given many people a source of living. Earlier, people used to come only to watch movies, but now it is more famous as a busy shopping mall in the city centre.

‘‘The changed attitude of movie buffs might have forced cinema owners to convert these cinema halls into shopping malls,’’ says Oven, a film buff who has watched several movies in those halls.

Already, the city has got two multiplexes and more than 15 multiplex theatres are in the pipeline, which also includes an I-Max theatre on Brigade Road. Only time will tell how many more cinemas will be converted into malls.