Eros, located in Grade II-A heritage building at Churchgate, shut down in 2017 because of poor ticket sales
Yogesh Naik (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 29, 2018)

Eros, one of Mumbai’s first single screens and an integral part of the city’s Bollywood history, could soon reopen in a new avatar with a smaller theatre on its first floor and a sprawling departmental store on the ground.

Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee is looking at a proposal by the Cambata family, which owns the space, to turn the theatre’s lobby and stall section into a department store and the balcony into a 300-seat theatre.

Eros, which is located in Grade II-A heritage Cambata building on the junction of Maharshi Karve Road and Jamshetji Tata Road at Churchgate, shut down in 2017 because of poor ticket sales in the face of competition from multi-screen theatres.

A few months later, the building was attached by the collector upon the orders of the labour commissioner following the Cambatas inability to clear the dues of the employees of Cambata Aviation, the family’s ground handling business at the Mumbai international airport.

The redevelopment plan is parallely being reviewed by the state governnment’s Urban Development Department and the BMC’s Building Proposals Department. The project will require multiple permissions as Cambata building is part of Mumbai’s World Heritage Site of Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble and it is located in the Oval sub-precinct of the Fort precinct.

The proposal seeks change of user and alterations within the part of the building that housed the cinema hall. It promises that the art-deco elements in the theatre’s lobby and the atrium will be retained and rejuvenated.

In a statement released on Friday, Metro Realty, which has won the mandate to redevelop the property, said the structure has deteriorated considerably in the past 80 years and it will be a challenge to restore it to its past glory. “We have the experience of rejuvenating Metro Cinema and we intend to do the same here,” said Atul Gupta, director, Metro Realty.

The Cambata building has several tenants, including a bank and a coffee shop, and the theatre is surrounded by commercial establishments on all sides. Once the redevelopment is complete, the current entrance to the theatre will become the entrance to the departmental store, while the access to the cinema hall will be from the east façade of the building.

Eros Cinema with a capacity to seat 1204 people, opened in 1938. The two wings of this art deco building meet up in a central block. The foyer is in white and black marble with touches of gold. Marble staircases with chromium handrails lead up to the upper floor.

Eros, Regal and many other iconic single screen theatres in the city are slowly grinding towards shutting shop or being sold to multiplex chains
Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; December 12, 2018)

It has been almost two years since Eros Cinema, located at a busy intersection near Churchgate railway station in Mumbai, has halted operations. For many months, it has been in the news, with a question mark on what the future holds for this iconic cinema hall in Mumbai. Reportedly, even Regal, once considered the pinnacle of South Mumbai’s cinematic dreams, is struggling to sell tickets. A solo-screen in a theatre just does not cut it anymore, not in a business model where multiplexes can run dozens of shows across half-a-dozen screens at the same time.

A visit to the Eros building had revealed that it had been shut for repairs and maintenance, although there was nothing evident on the ground floor visible from the gate. Enquiries around the property suggested that talks were going on with a multiplex giant and a London-based realtor for either turning the cinema into a multiplex or a shopping complex, but neither seems to have moved forward in the last year or so.

Actor Randhir Kapoor remembers watching films at Eros. He believes that it is indeed difficult for the industry, especially the senior frat, to imagine Mumbai without its iconic cinemas in their original form. “I used to study around the corner where Eros is located. I have great memories of watching films like My Fair Lady (1964) and The Young Ones (1961) at Eros. It was one place that so many youngsters those days frequented for their fill of English films. The place also hosted censor previews. I’m sure it’s the lack of business that has forced its owners to let Eros change hands. I will miss the Eros of yore…” he sighs.

YOUR HERITAGE, YOU PROTECT
Eros is not the first, and sadly, may not be the last of its kind in Mumbai. The city roughly has close to a 100 single screen cinemas struggling for survival, most with dismal businesses. Tickets at most single screens are still sold at marginal rates as compared to the cushy multiplexes. They also have huge seating capacities and not every film they run is a sell-out.

In the midst of the mushrooming slick multi-screen culture, people have somewhat forgotten what a rustic cinema hall feels like. Unfortunately, some of the old single screen theatres are in absolutely dilapidated and stained conditions. For proof, one could walk out of Grant Road towards Bhuleshwar. The tainted lanes house several cinemas which are probably breathing their last. Screenings of even C-grade films have not been helping them much. Some of them even resort to soft-porn and Bhojpuri movies for making ends meet, which occasionally works. In the pre-internet, satellite TV and download days, going to a nearby cinema hall was one of the prime forms of family entertainment but not today.

Cinemas had large-sized screens with space to seat 600 to sometimes 1,100 people. In the last decade, single screens have fallen on hard times. Multiplexes not only have four to five screens where several movies are shown simultaneously, but also have restaurants, bars and shopping arcades, which lure more people. In the last five years alone, several medium and big-sized single screens have downed shutters or been through a supposed face-lift. However, the city continues to have bus stops that are named after cinema halls, some of which do not even exist anymore.

Historian Deepak Rao recalls, “Watching a movie on the first weekend was a norm for many Mumbaikars. First day, first show had such importance in our lives but that charm is lost now. Stall, balcony, dress circle, box… I mean even booking a ticket had its own beauty and fun.” He also adds, “The halls were decorated with chandeliers, mirrors, paintings and carpeted staircases. Maratha Mandir was a 1,000-seater and it has hosted some of the grandest of film premieres of the bygone era. South Mumbai was a thriving hub of cinema halls. It had so many that some of the lanes and junctions were known by the theatre located there. Regal, Metro… these exist even today but they don’t exude the same beauty.”

He goes to the extent of saying that it won’t surprise him if single screens are completely wiped out from the face of the city. “Single screens may work in smaller cities but even there, they won’t survive for long. Mumbai itself has fewer examples of single screens, which have survived the test of time. Deepak Cinema in Lower Parel for example. It’s in an area where there aren’t too many options for people to watch a movie,” says Deepak Rao, adding, “The government will not do anything for the upkeep of Eros or another place like that because for them, this is not a heritage structure that they can spend on. Your heritage, you protect.”

SAVE SINGLE SCREENS, NOW
With time, and increasing competition from plexes, single-screens are barely surviving with loyal patrons and people seeking cheap movie tickets on a weekday or a weekend. Most owners feel pricing the tickets right is the only way to get footfalls.

Nitin Datar of the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India was shocked to read about the current condition of Eros and Regal. He believes, “There are single screens that have turned into multiplexes and I’m not sure if they are fully satisfied with the results. For the current state of iconic single screens, I can’t blame Mumbaikars. While they preserve their cultural heritage, the generation of patrons visiting single screens doesn’t quite exist now.”

He adds, “Around 55 cinemas have closed down due to heavy taxes and no relief or support from the Central and State Government. Film piracy has also crippled their business. Distributors often have unfair demands from single screens as compared to the terms they set while dealing with multiplexes. Service providers of content are increasing their rates which has become unaffordable not only to single screens but also to producers and distributors at large. In India, out of 15000 cinemas, 8500 are running in Maharashtra. In comparison, China, in 2007 had only 3527 cinemas, but after policy changes in 2015, there now have 31,627 cinemas. Their industry has benefitted. So, unless some drastic steps are taken by the government bodies, single screens will be wiped out with 20 to 30 percent screens shutting down in the next few years.”

Siddharth Roy Kapur, who heads the producers’ guild, had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too. He, along with a couple of industry representatives, met the PM to discuss why Bollywood deserves an industry status. When we asked him what filmmakers could do to help single screens survive the test of time, he told us, “In the larger scheme of things, there’s an urgent need for cinema to be exempted from the GST. There are many hurdles for anyone who is trying to build infrastructure that enables cinema watching. Double taxation is also hurting the industry at large. Having said that, every business has its own model and it’s way of functioning, making it viable in its construct. What the guild can do at this point is to put forth a word about the taxation structure, requesting it to be made viable for single screens to function. China has multiplied their screen capacity by a mile. With some policy changes, we, can do it, too.”

Bafflingly it’s been closed for several months. Here’s rewinding to the Eros cinema that was
Khalid Mohamed (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 23, 2018)

The Man Hunts the Girl. The Girl Hunts the Man.

That catchy tagline of the thriller, To Chase A Crooked Shadow, commanded housefulls for months at Mumbai’s Eros cinema back in 1958.

Now 60 years down, the Eros is a Ghost Paradiso. Its tall, hard metal carved gates have been padlocked for months, if not for over a year — a closure which has gone unheeded and unmourned.

After all, who has the time to care about a grand forlorn structure, bang opposite the city’s commuteremitting Churchgate railway station? In the name of redevelopment in the Maximum Metropolis, who cares for must-dekkos in the art-deco landmark anymore?

The story of Eros — either inadvertently or tantalisingly named after the Greek god of love, implying sexual desire and yearning — is way more complicated than any dysfunctional family plot. All I can figure is that on January 19, last year, the Cambata building which houses the cinema was closed down following contentious labour issues. The next day, it re-opened, chugged along for a while, and then went pffft. Not news, it happens. In any case, burly security guards on being badgered, looked at me as if I was from some fringe group, out to spark trouble. Exit, information seeker.

Questions nagged: If Eros is on the cusp of renovation or takeover by a multiplex baron, how come there isn’t a shadow of such intent on the spot? Could the God of Love become a Mall of Branded Goodies perchance?

Out out paranoia. Desist! Keep out of the legal parameters. Just stroll over to the nearby Inox ‘plex or better still, to the good ‘ol Regal. If not, go back to your memory files and relish the feel great times at L’Eros when Mumbai was Bombay, when cinema meant rapture and enchantment, be it in the stalls, dress circle or balcony.

The first two rows right before the screen, covered by a velvety curtain before the show commenced, were 10 annas a ticket. I avoided the pits, simply because the faces looked more distorted than reflections on a carnival’s funny mirror.

The stalls were where it’s at, the middle M and N rows perfect for the sound acoustics. Ears had to be alert to grasp the rat-a-rat American English dialogue. Or it had to be the balcony’s front row, to avoid craning my neck so as to see every millimetre of the screen. If it was the second or third row, I’d been cursed infallibly to sit right behind the tallest man, woman or child in the world. The A row, balcony, was the coolest.

I’d like to believe it’s not that simple thing called nostalgia which prompts me to reel back to the magic kingdom that was at Churchgate. It was built in 1938 (note: I’m not that old, I wasn’t there for its opening). As in love, there’s always the first time. For me that was a weekend treat to see the six-packed Burt Lancaster do his swashbuckling act in Crimson Pirate. It was premiered in India years after it became a rage with the kids in the US. The technicolour film was joyous, action-packed, fantasy-come-true but there was a kind of unhappy ending. Farrokh, my neighbourhood gang’s Tom Sawyer behavea-like sprinted down the curved marble straircase right into the transparent exit door. Result: a nasty bump on his head.

Over time, there were the wowie westerns (aah, Rio Bravo and Cheyenne Autumn), musicals (sigh, My Fair Lady), comedies (‘ol blueeyes Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack), tearjerkers (sniff, The Heart is A Lonely Hunter). Incidentally, one of the longest stayers at Eros, was the sex-on-the-rocks, strictly for adults only Blow Hot Blow Cold which I had to crash into, courtesy an eyebrow pencilled smudge of a moustache. The marathon-runner was the ultimate date flick Pretty Woman. Julia Roberts flossed her teeth, can’t remember if Richard Gere did.

A total Eros recall isn’t doable, I could go yawn nauseam. Truly, I don’t know whether I will see it the way it was with its vintage soda fountains and the unforgettable studio portraits of Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman and more. Curiously, though, a classic portrait was suddenly replaced by a frame of Urmila Matondkar. That could be leftover publicity material from Rangeela which had opened at the Eros. Maybe.

For the longest while, films distributed by Warner Bros in India would be exclusively released there. A Hindi film would pop up occasionally. Example: the roll-in-the-aisles comedy Pyar Kiye Jaa. Eventually, Bollywood ruled. Old-timer exhibitors would know why the shiftover. Lagaan played at the Eros, practically every film has since the ‘90s, separate films at separate shows.

To date the Man Hunts the Girl, the Girl Hunts the Man at the movies. And something tells me that all movie lovers of the city will keep hunting for the return of Eros.

Former CBFC member Nandini Sardesai reveals why the board members had rejected the movie outright
Roshni Olivera (BOMBAY TIMES; September 1, 2017)

Owner's Cambata Aviation Owes Staff Rs 100 Crore
THE TIMES OF INDIA (January 19, 2017)

Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 29, 2015)

Recreating Bombay's tryst with the '60s

Before Tissamaharama in Sri Lanka was finalised as the location where Bombay of the '60s would be recreated for Anurag Kashyap's period drama, Bombay Velvet, the film's crew travelled across India to find a space large enough to accommodate a city with its transport lines, nightclubs and residential areas. "No place was economically viable. And we couldn't shoot two scenes in Kolkata, one in Mumbai and others elsewhere. We needed to recreate the metropolis in one location. And creating everything from scratch, on a 9-acre stretch, was a humungous task which took us over 10 months," says Sonal Sawant, the film's production designer, who has previously worked on Lakshya and Kai Po Che.

Before the central venue of the film, the Bombay Velvet Club, was created, the land had to be levelled, tram lines laid out and the famous Falkland Road and Rosie's (Anushka Sharma's character) house had to be built.

She remembers that when the actors arrived, their jaws dropped when they saw the city spread out in front of them. A miniature version was shown to Anurag earlier and his inputs were incorporated.

The visuals look like a cross between Moulin Rouge and Scarface but Sawant insists she was only inspired by Olivier Dahan's Marion Cottilard-musical La Vie en rose. "That's the first film that came to my mind when I read the script. It kept playing in my head as I went about sourcing the props," she admits.

The exterior of the Bombay Velvet club looks uncannily like Eros theatre in Churchgate. Sawant agrees that it was a reference point. And the magnificent chandeliers inside, along with the velvet curtains and the custom-made cutlery were either made-to-order or sourced from Chor Bazaar.

"On Friday, 5 pm, Mumbai's famous flea market, offers great bargains on yesteryear treasures. We picked up a lot of our furniture from there. Some we recreated and I can say confidently that no one can tell the difference between real antiques and fakes!" she asserts.

Which part of Bombay did she have the most fun recreating? "It has to be Falkland Road, popularly known as Kamathipura, Bombay's red-light area. I think we got the architecture, the narrow bylanes and all those little chawls spot on. After it was complete, no one could tell the diffterence between the real Falkland Road in Mumbai and the one in Sri Lanka," she concludes.