This cinema theatre has been turned into a police station

This cinema theatre has been turned into a police station
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: It happens only in Karnataka. While the entire Kannada film industry spilled out onto the streets to protest against non-Kannada films and complained against cinema owners, the industry has hardly taken any initiative to revive a cinema which had screened mostly Kannada movies for two decades.

Puttanna cinema in the Jayanagar Shopping Complex, named after a great director and visionary, Puttanna Kanagal, has now been turned into a traffic police station. The cinema used to screen Kannada movies to packed houses and was a popular entertainment destination for south Bangalore. In later years the attitude of the cinema staff and pathetic management by Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) meant that it was curtains for the hall. Neither the BCC nor the State Government has shown any interest in renovating and restarting it.

Actors Vishanuvardhan and Ambarish raised their voices against BCC’s move to close the cinema. But their efforts have not opened the eyes of the system yet. ‘‘It’s an insult to our ‘Guru’ Puttanna Kanagal. If the Government is not interested in reopening the cinema, we shall take the initiative to start it,’’ Vishnuvardhan told this website’s newspaper. He also appealed to the Government to change the name of cinema, whose lobby and parking lots had turned into a police station. ‘‘Puttana had never asked the Government to name any cinema after him. When they (Government) do something in memory of a personality, they should maintain the cinema,’’ says Vishnu adding that only if citizens of Jayanagar came forward to restart the cinema will the old cinema regain it’s lost glory.

According to BCC officials, the cinema belongs to the Government and the first floor is under BCC’s control. Police are also not very keen on working in the lobby. A senior police officer said the cinema would be vacated within three months. But the reality is that movie lovers have to go through a much longer ‘‘intermission’’ before the BCC decides to revive it.