Address: 2 Indra Roy Road, Kolkata - 700025
Inaugurated In: 08.07.1948
Opening Film: Sadharan Meye
Status: CLOSED
Arts Pictures Limited has set up a cinema in Bhowanipore and named it Indira. Abanichandra Basu, who was at the first director of Arts Pictures Limited, had inaugurated it. The cinema had 824 seats and was air-conditioned. MK Ghosh was in charge of designing the exterior of the building. The interior decoration was done by Khagen Roy. All Uttam Kumar films used to run very successfully at Indira. The story goes that Satyajit Ray had asked Uttam Kumar to come for the premiere of Nayak at Indira Cinema. However, Ray was cautioned that there might be a pandemonium with the press and general public in attendance. However Ray had said: "Uttam, don't forget it is a Satyajit Ray film. Be there". The actor did and as expected, there was pandemonium. Peace finally prevailed after Uttam raised his hands and said: "I request you to please be silent and watch the film. Don't forget it is a Satyajit Ray film." RD Bansal had taken over the cinema sometime in the early 80s. Current owner Rajendra Bagaria took over in 1998 and is now the director of Arts Pictures Private Limited. By then, the golden period of jubilees was on the decline. Apart from Hindi films, Rajendra has screened Bengali blockbusters of SVF. Paran Jai Jaliya Re (2009) and Challenge (2009) have done good business there. In recent times, Bengali films have not been able to draw a big crowd. Before lockdown, a few Gujarati movies were released there. Some ran to packed houses. The cinema was shut during the pandemic. It reopened in 2021 with a rerun of Radhe on August 11, 2021. After that, it tried another strategy and started screening reruns of old movies. The evening and night shows started screening new Punjabi movies. Since Bhabanipur has a sizeable Punjabi population, this audience turnout was better than the figures for matinee and noon shows. Sometimes, it becomes a community event with people dropping in half an hour before the screening to catch up. However, the footfall could not be sustained and the cinema has been shut for renovation. The plan is to decrease the number of seats before reopening.
Did You Know?
Rajendra's father, Mohanlal, had a film distribution company named Mohan Pictures. Mohanlal used to release old movie. He expired in 1985. As a result, Rajendra has some 300 lobby cards and stills in his possession. Most of them are for Hindi films. Original booklets are on display on the first floor. Indira is the only single screen in Kolkata that has a treasure trove of rare lobby cards on display. Among the rarest ones are the lobby cards of Aan (1952), Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Ganga Jamuna (1961).
Important Releases (1917-1999)
Manmoyee Girls' School (14.03.1958), Bicharak (12.03.1959), Nirdharita Shilpir Anupasthitite (28.08.1959), Sonar Harin (08.10.1959), Meghe Dhaka Tara (14.04.1960), Punashcha (15.09.1961), Swaralipi (14.04.1961), Abhijan (28.09.1962), Atal Jaler Ahwan (25.05.1962), Mahanagar (27.08.1963), Saat Pake Bandha (22.03.1963), Charulata (17.04.1964), Nayak (06.05.1966), Balika Badhu (02.06.1967), Nim Annapurna (16.09.1983), Phatikchand (15.04.1983), Joddha (08.08.1997), Kalratri (25.07.1997),