Cuttack: There was a time when these movie halls served as Cuttack’s landmarks. While giving directions, you just had to say it’s near so and so talkies. One by one, however, these theatres have gone out of business.
Hind Cinema is no different.
Closed for a long time, the cinema hall, one of the oldest movie theatres in Cuttack, is set to be razed. A state-of-the-art entrance for the SCB Medical College and Hospital will come up in its place.
Built in 1951, the theatre located in Ranihaat was among the most popular ones in Cuttack, where superhit Odia movies ran for weeks and months to packed houses.
The ‘single-screen’ theatre — all theatres were single-screen those days and didn’t carry such a label — no longer screens movies and is now shut, put out of business by multiplexes and OTT platforms.
The Cuttack district administration has already begun the process for its demolition.
District Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani said that SCB will have a different look altogether as part of an expansion plan, requiring a spacious and state-of-the-art entrance from Ranihaat side for smooth flow of traffic.
The owner of Hind Cinema has agreed to its demolition, for which he would be paid Rs 9.5 crore, he added.
Once the place is vacated, the theatre will be razed.
The district authorities said that one acre of land has been acquired along with the cinema hall to build a modern entrance for the hospital.
All shops near the theatre will be provided Rs 1 lakh each as rehabilitation cost and given stalls in a vending zone to be set up by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC).
Besides, offices of the Odisha State Seeds Corporation and Odisha State Leather Corporation along with a few others will be shifted from Ranihaat to Pratapnagari on the outskirts as part of the hospital’s expansion.
Over the years, several landmark movie theatres in Cuttack have gone out of business and shut down, among them Jayashree Talkies, Pravat Cinema, Rajatarangini Hall and Hind Cinema.
