Even as many cinema halls make way to commercial complexes or apartments, Jayaram theatre, the oldest one in the city is still continuing in the entertainment business coping with the change that is inevitable.
Equipped with the latest satellite-based digital cinema system, the 76-year-old cinema hall is leaving no stone unturned to stay afloat in the show business at any cost, says its lease-holder E. Gurnatha Rao who has run it for the last 18 years.
Going down the memory lane, he says that those were the days when film buffs used to come from different parts of the district by bullock carts and cook their food with make-shift ovens to enjoy, among other films, NTR-starrers ‘Lava Kusa’ (1963) and ‘Pandava Vanavasam’ (1965).
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Doyen of Telugu cinema Akkineni Nageswara Rao had even motored down to Jayaram theatre along with popular actor of yesteryears Anjali Devi from Chennai, the home of South Indian film industry then, to celebrate the 100th day of the film ‘Suvarna Sundari’ with their fans here in 1957, recalls Mr. Gurunatha Rao, who keep the shows going despite the ever-increasing maintenance cost.
“It is a hand to mouth existence after meeting recurring expenditure of Rs. one lakh every month,” he explains. “The situation now is not at all encouraging. It is high time the State Government comes out with stringent measures to curb piracy and exempt from entertainment tax all films after a three-week run so that we can get some returns,” he pleads.
It was a contractor with the British regime Jayaram Reddy who built the cinema hall in 1938. It was renovated in 1990.
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The cinema hall, which celebrated its diamond jubilee last year, is owned now by the family members of Vakka Venkatswamy Reddy and his business partner Balineni Perumalla Reddy, grandfather of former Ongole MLA Balineni Srinivasa Reddy who had bought it together in 1958, but preferred not rename it in view of its popularity.