Baahubali, the mighty warrior, has felled a new victim – the iconic Shiela Cinema, which is the latest single screen theatre in Delhi to shut do

Baahubali, the mighty warrior, has felled a new victim – the iconic Shiela Cinema, which is the latest single screen theatre in Delhi to shut down. Fifty-six years after it was set up, Shiela downed its shutters yesterday. It faced financial losses, compounded by not being given the rights to screen “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion”, which shattered records on it opening day. “We have been shut since yesterday. We were running at a loss and it was getting difficult for us to maintain the theatre,” Shiela Cinema owner Uday Kaushik told PTI. Kaushik said the closure was on the anvil, but “Baahubali 2” might have given the hall a temporary lease of life.

“The plans for shutting the cinema were, however, on for a while,” he said. The legendary theatre in central Delhi’s Paharganj, established in January 1961, was among the 65 theatres that had failed to get the right to screen “Baahubali 2”. “Had we screened the film, we would have been able to generate some revenues. But it was not a major reason. It was really a question of when we would shut down,” Kaushik said.

....

Several single screen halls in the city – including Plaza, Odeon, Sangam, Satyam and Rivoli — now operate with multiple screens. “We want to turn Shiela into a multiplex. That is definitely an option. But we will take some time for that. We have a large plot and we are planning to have at least 10 screens,” he said. Film distributor Joginder Mahajan, who is the treasurer of the Motion Pictures Association in Delhi and UP, said several factors together led to the closure.