‘Munna’ fans go on rampage

‘Munna’ fans go on rampage
Deccan Herald

City Munnabhais went on a rampage Sunday night and ransacked Abhinay theatre in busy Majestic area, following a sudden disruption in the screening of the Hindi blockbuster Lage Raho Munna Bhai...

City Munnabhais went on a rampage Sunday night and ransacked Abhinay theatre in busy Majestic area, following a sudden disruption in the screening of the Hindi blockbuster Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Despite repeated announcements by the theatre authorities that the ticket money would be refunded, an unruly audience broke the windowpanes, tore down posters and ransacked the ticket counters.

Ashok P Bhoopalam, one of the partners of Abhinay theatre, told Deccan Herald Sunday night, “We don’t have any say in this digital (computerised) system of beaming the movies. “The movie timings, clarity, sound, etc, are controlled and beamed through servers from Mumbai. The know-how, machinery, maintenance — the entire package — is hired from the United Front Organisation, Mumbai. “We just give the show timings to the Mumbai firm and the rest is taken care of by them. Today being a holiday, the 7.30 pm show was full. Everything was fine during the first hour. Around 10 minutes after the interval (9.35 pm), the projector developed some technical snag and the movie went off air,” he said. “We contacted the Mumbai authorities and they informed us that they would rectify the problem in a few minutes. We informed the audience about the steps being taken by us, but they were in no mood to listen. Within seconds, they started shouting and hurling stones at the glasses.”

Initially the theatre authorities wanted to refund the ticket money. When the viewers refused, they managed to arrange movie prints from Urvashi theatre in the City. But by the time things could fall in place, the theatre premises was in a shambles. The screening of the same movie in various other theatres went on smoothly.


Abhinay theatre, one of the first cinema halls to have escalators and expensive paintings on the glasses, resembled a war zone. Dozens of prized trophies, cups and medals bagged for screening top movies like Sannadhi Appanna, Kaviratna Kalidasa, America America, Swarag Narak, Sargam were reduced to pieces. Pointing towards the destruction, Ashok said, “Our theatre was much sought after by many artistes, but today, for no fault of ours, we are targeted.”