Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

The shutting down of the historic Chanakya Cinema in Delhi marks the end of an era. Hence it came as no surprise when yesterday scores of Delhiites  were present at the Complex to bid adieu to one of the city’s  favourite theater and the adjacent Nirula Restaurant. Both the properties will now be handed over to New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in the name of “progress”.

Since  “Young India” is all about modernity and high rise buildings, the Powers of Be at the NDMC decided to award us with a shiny new multiplex (History be damned) in place of the Chanakya complex. Talk about having a skewed perspective.

Personally, Chanakya was an integral part of my adolescent years. It was here where at the age of 13, I saw  my first “Grown-Up” Hollywood flick “While You were Sleeping”. It was here, where I dared to venture into the  infamous front stalls to catch the latest Bollywood flick. It was here where like countless South Campus students, I bunked classes to catch the First Day First Show.  


Chanakya Cinema, was started on December 17, 1970 and  the first ever movie to be shown there was Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker. The story goes that no one wanted to screen this 4 hour movie and the “Greatest Showman in Bollywood” personally flew down and requested the Khanna family to screen his movie. The rest as they say is history.

Since the 70s, the cinema has been famous for the countless Hollywood and art house movies it has screened.

Aditya Khanna, the owner of Chanakya, says, “My father spent 40 years of his life to this place. We started it all. Movies like Passage to India were premiered here. We introduced Delhiites to Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick. But soon Delhi will lose a part of its legacy.”

Some may accuse of me romanticizing this situation however no one can deny  that Chanakya will remain in the psyche of the Delhi Cinemagoer for a long time.

As HT simply puts it

“Long before PVRs and McDonald’s took over the city, Chanakya was the place to hang out. Generations of college goers, dating couples and families have visited and revisited the landmark. Nirula’s introduced the tandoori chicken-loving Delhiites to its famous Big Boy burger, capsicum and cheese pizza and Love 21 ice cream. Even the ambience of this particular outlet is absolutely different from all their other outlets.”