Navrang theatre to be split into two

One of the few surviving single-screen theatres and among the oldest in the city, Navrang, on Dr Rajkumar Road is all set to joint its ilk in the multiple screen industry. The huge 1,100-seater, 55-year-old theatre will be transformed into a double-screen as its owners want to go with the trend of small screens. Owned by the famous producer-distributor KCN family, Navrang has stood the test of time and still runs to packed houses, despite stiff competition from multiplexes and multi-screen theatres.
Owned initially by the late KCN Gowda, Navrang is now managed by his two sons.'The present trend is small screens and we have given tough competition in the industry with our big theatre.Navrang is a 1,100-seater and we want to split it into two screens.When we look at our contemporary theatres like Tribhuvan closing down, we feel we have grown strong in the market. A huge, singlescreen theatre owned by Sivaji Ganeshan in Chennai was also split into two screens and it is doing well today,' one of the co-owners, KCN Mohan, told Bangalore Mirror. While Thursday was the last day-last show at the twin theatres in Gandhinagar ' Tribhuvan and Kailash ' several single screens like them have shut shop over the last one decade. The theatres will be razed down and pave the way for a commercial structure as their business suffered loss due to a dip in collections.
'We do not want Navrang to become history after being managed well so far. Our night shows are a hit.Our fares are affordable for people of even the lowermiddle class,' pointed out Mohan.
While the initial trend in the theatre business was 1,300-1,400-seaters, going up to second and third floors, with a huge demand for the balcony, this started shrinking with the advent of multiplexes. Navrang had started with 180 balcony seats and seeing the demand, they were dou bled to 360 about 12 years ago.
However, the theatre with its 27 feet by 54 feet screen, did not have its tickets skyrocketing ' even today, the ticket prices vary between Rs 60 and Rs 80. The theatre used to screen all five language films ' Kannada topmost, English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. But after the road was named after Dr Rajkumar, Tamil films were stopped being screened here. 'People did not want Tamil movies in Navrang since the theatre is on Dr Rajkumar Road, so we stopped. All movies in other four languages are fine. And of course all the Kannada box office hits reach Navrang first.With two screens, we can increase the number of movies,' says Mohan.
One of the earliest theatres to down its shutters was the iconic Plaza on MG Road, then South Parade. The owners sold the building to a businessman and it was subsequently acquired and demolished for the MG Road metro rail station.
END OF SINGLE SCREENS
The city has been steadily losing its iconic theatres. In the central business district aka Cantonment, Plaza, which introduced movie buffs to English films, was closed down. Galaxy on Residency Road was an other popular single screen that was shut. Who can forget Lido at the end of MG road? It's now 1 MG and Lido multiplex. Symphony is now Shankarnag multiplex. In Gandhinagar area, the hub of Sandal wood, at one point there were 36 single screens; today, it's not even a handful. These single screen, huge theatres built in the 1960s and 70s have faded away into the past. Alankar was one of the best among them. It is a long list: Sagar, Kalpana, Geetanjali, Kempegowda, Pallavi, Cen tral and Kino. Down in South Bengaluru, we had Nanda, Shanti, Puttanna and Drive-in, but they are gone now.