THE REGAL CINEMA OF SRINAGAR

                                    

                                         

THE REGAL CINEMA OF SRINAGAR 

“Relating a person to the whole world: that is the meaning of cinema” …Andrei Tarkovsky 

 It was in 1932 when Palladium Talkies was opened at Lal Chowk in Srinagar city by Bhai Anant Singh Gauri, an enterprising Sikh gentleman from Punjab.  Bhai Anant Singh Gauri was a philanthropist who donated more than 50 Kanals of land to the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, in 1978. Run by "The Kashmir Talkies Ltd.”, the first sound picture, Alam Ara, released in 1931, was also screened in this cinema hall.  The Palladium was burnt in a terrorist related violence in 1993.

The opening of the Palladium Cinema was immediately followed by the opening of the Regal Cinema in Srinagar city by the Bal brothers, another Punjabi family who were also state subjects of J&K State. The Bal brothers, Amresh Bal, Prakash Bal and Mahinder Bal, were great entrepreneurs who ran cinema halls in Lahore, Srinagar and Gulmarg run by their company, "The Universal Pictures Ltd. " For their cinema business, the Bal brothers focused on the European audience initially. Gulmarg cinema was exclusively opened for European visitors, and some of the popular Hollywood movies were shown there. This Gulmarg cinema opened only during the tourist season or the summer. The Bals had opened a bar as well inside the Regal Cinema in Srinagar city.

In 1940, the Bal family built another cinema hall near Regal Cinema, naming it Amresh Talkies. It was exactly on the Residency Road at the entrance of the Regal Cinema in the building housing various shops like Bata, Kohli Brothers, SK Selections, Excelsior Tailors, etc. The Bal family used to live on the first floor of the Amresh Talkies. The Bal family had a bungalow at Gupkar Road in Srinagar and another house at Raj Bagh apart from other properties in the Kashmir valley. In the 1950s, both Regal and Amresh cinemas were purchased by Bakshi Abdul Majid, brother of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, from the Bals brothers for 1.50 lakhs. Both the cinema halls were set ablaze on 28th December, 1963, by an infuriated mob protesting against the mysterious disappearance of the holy relic (Moi e Muqaddas) from the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar. The new owner of the two cinema halls reconstructed the Regal Cinema in 1966-67 after the fire incident, and it was the biggest cinema hall in the State in terms of seating capacity of 1340 visitors. The new Regal Cinema was thrown open to the public in 1967. On the opening day, Raj Kapoor's film," Around the World in Eight Dollars" was screened with the entire hall packed to capacity. Regal cinema was thronged by youngsters, generally students from nearby S P College, Govt College for Women (MA Road) and youth from other localities of the city who thronged the fashionable Residency Road. Amongst some classical movies based on epic stories, Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya were first time screened at the Regal Cinema. This writer  has been told by many elders that the 1963 movie,"Ye Raaste Hain Pyar Ke", which had Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu in the lead roles, ran for many months at this cinema hall.  Once, the roof of the ticket counter also collapsed in the Regal cinema as crowds went up the roof to try getting tickets. Once, the police had to intervene when some hooligans misbehaved with girls from the Women's College (MA Road) who had come to watch a Rajesh Khanna movie. The cinema had to be shut down after 1990 due to a ban on video parlours, liquor and cinema halls in Kashmir by now defunct Allah Tigers, a terrorist outfit active in the valley at that time. However, in 1999, the then government, headed by Farooq Abdullah, tried to open cinema halls amid tight security arrangements in 1999. The government even gave rupees forty-five lakhs interest-free loans to cinema hall owners under this revival initiative. However, on the very first day of its opening, a terrorist organisation hurled a grenade at the crowd that was coming out of the Regal Cinema hall. One person was killed, and 12 others were seriously injured in this grenade attack by terrorists. Pyar Koyi Khel Nahin was being shown on the opening day at the cinema hall. The movie had Sunny Deol and Mahima Chowdhary in the lead roles. The cinema was closed later.

Presently, Regal Cinema has been demolished by its owners, and a multi-story complex has come up at the venue.  Although the Regal Cinema does not exist now, Kashmiris have kept Regal alive as Regal Chowk continues to be a popular place to hang out and a fashionable spot for youngsters.

Mahinder Bal was a great golf player who once won the prestigious Amateur Golf Championship Trophy for the J&K State. Rama Bal was active in various social causes. In 1990, the entire Bal family shifted to Delhi. Rohit Bal, the well- known fashion designer, belonged to this family. Rohit studied at Burn Hall School in Srinagar and later at DPS, Mathura Road, New Delhi. Rohit rose to astronomical heights of popularity after he designed the wardrobes of leading Hollywood stars like Uma Thurman, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell ,Pamela Anderson and many more. Along with his brother, Rajiv Bal, Rohit opened many stores in the country selling fashion apparel. Rohit died in 2024 due to a heart ailment.

 ( Avtar Mota)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.