Nataraj 70 mm cinema hall demolished, fades out of Secunderabad

Nostalgia hits as iconic Nataraj cinema hall in Secunderabad is demolished, leaving memories of classic movies and experiences.

Nataraj, one of the landmark cinema halls in Secunderabad, that screened English, Hindi and later Telugu movies till a decade ago, is now a heap of rubble. Two earthmover operators manoeuvre their machines to heap the rubble to one side to be carted away by heavy duty trucks in the night. “Yesterday, 22 truck loads of rubble was taken away,” says a worker on the site.

The property where the art deco cinema hall stood has been acquired by a hospital. The building was repurposed as a furniture shop before it was demolished. The cinema hall’s name ‘nataraj’, written in wrought iron in Brush Script, stood out on the upper left side. It could not be traced in the rubble.

As the news about the change of guard and use of the site spread on social media, cinegoers in Secunderabad became nostalgic. “I remember watching ‘Fiddler On The Roof’. A few decades later, I watched Ninne Pelladutha,” remembers a resident of Marredpally. One of the first 70mm cinema halls in the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh, it also had the credit of being fully Air Conditioned. “Sad to see all the iconic single screen theatres of Hyderabad disappear with time. I remember watching Telugu, Hindi, and English films in all the theatres from the time I was a kid through my early twenties until I left for the US,” says Satish Kolluri, a Communication and Media Studies professor in New York.

In the one kilometre radius of Nataraj, the other theatres that have disappeared include Sangeet, Manohar, Persis, Ajanta, Dreamland and a few decades before that Minerva, Plaza, Paradise. Now only the names and memories remain in form of shopping complexes or restaurants.

Naresh Yadav who studied in Mahbub College remembers Nataraj as a cinema hall where he watched movies from the front seat to the box office. “I remember buying a ticket for 75 paise and the highest price was ₹20. It had a Sikh person as a manager who brooked no nonsense of selling tickets in black market or standing in the middle of the hall,” says Mr. Yadav, a resident of West Marredpally. Even with hundreds of seats, the single screen cinema hall would become full while screening a popular movie.

“I watched Rajesh Khanna’s Aradhana on a hastily arranged recliner chair as the regular seats were full. The cinema hall was among the theatres that had a morning screening of Tamil movies to cater to the Tamil population of Secunderabad,” informs Mr. Yadav. Another cinegoer Narender only remembers watching Amitabh Bachchan movies including the blockbuster Silsila.

“Bunking school with friends once in a while to catch a morning show in Zamarud, Nataraj or Royal theatre, watching The Sound of Music with my parents in Ramakrishna 70 mm, going with my brother to Srinivasa 35 mm to watch Crazy Boys and Rider on the Rain, being awestruck by Maheshwari/Parmeshwari, and looking forward to the pudina chilli sandwiches at Sangeet during the interval are some of the most vivid and beautiful memories that come to mind. I still reminisce with friends about the special place movie theatres had in shaping our pop culture,” says Mr. Kolluri.