“Watch out for this space for a multi-storey residential apartment complex on 41 grounds,” announces a poster on the premises of Padmanabha theatre on Walltax Road in Mint. Yet another movie hall that has regaled people for generations has shut down and is taking the realty route.
Once called Regal, Padmanabha theatre joins other movie halls in north Chennai to be closed in the past few years — Murugan Talkies on St. Xavier Street, for instance. It was brought down and a commercial complex was built two years ago.
“It is still an important landmark in this part of the city. People travelling on MTC buses even today ask for Regal theatre stop,” says V. Shanmugham, who also lists the names of other movie halls in north Chennai that have shut down — Select, Crown and the iconic Broadway. Residents in this part of the city hardly have any movie halls left close to their homes.
“It certainly is not a new trend. It began by the end of the 1990s. More than a dozen movie halls across the city have given way for flats, office complexes and marriage halls,” says a real estate analyst, adding that the Gaiety complex and a plan for makeover of Shanthi theatre are among the more recent ones. Reacting to the developments around Padmanabha theatre, the analyst says north Chennai might turn out to be the dark horse in Chennai’s realty sector.
There are people in pockets of north Chennai who want to buy new homes and invest in property, space close to their current homes and multi-storey projects in a spacious site like Padmanabha theatre will have takers, the analyst says.
For residents, only memories remain. “I never missed any MGR film that was shown at Murugan. We never had to move out of Mint or Broadway to watch films, including English hits,” recalls M. Rajan, a 62-year-old autorickshaw driver, who has not watched a film on the big screen in many years now.
