With Rex theatre shutting down on December 31 this year, a rewind for a dash of reel history

The year was 1989. The inside of the Rex cinema hall had pictures of Batman in anticipation of the Michael Keaton starrer. No other film posters were visible. And who should surprise the crowd but the Caped Crusader himself! Shielded from the excited crowd by his entourage, he walked up to the stage and began giving away gifts and merchandise.

The behind-the-scenes story is that much like Batman, Anil Kapur, Joint Managing Director of the company that owns Rex, had to step up as the person hired by the distributor to play the part had fallen ill.

Kapur can’t help but smile at the memory. It is just one of the countless he has associated with the theatre. But soon, memories are all the theatre-going public will be left with as the last single screen theatre on the city’s very own Hollywood Boulevard will have its final showing on December 31.

The iconic cinema will be joining the ranks of the other single screen theatres in the Cantonment area that predominantly played English movies.

A Premchand, who was the film distributor for 20th Century Fox, Paramount, MGM, Universal Studios and United International Pictures, and is an expert on all things film, rattles off the list. “Empire and Liberty closed in the 70s, BRV (converted to a military canteen in the late 80s), Imperial (closed in early 90s), Blu Moon and Blu Diamond (closed in ‘94), Opera (closed in late 90s), Galaxy (2002), Plaza (2005), Symphony (converted to a multiplex in early 2000s) and Lido (converted to a multiplex in 2010).”

Rex too has a long history. The Paul’s Rex as it was known then started screening films in the 1930s. It was owned by Rao Saheb Pasupalety Venugopal Naidu alias PV Paul.

Booking Clerk, Michael Monteiro came to Rex in 1970 and has worked there the longest. He got a job as a helper when he was 18 years old. “Earlier, the red velvet curtains would go up and it used to say welcome on the screen before the movie started. Even just outside the auditorium, there were curtains before the theatre was converted to AC.”

Though he is all smiles, he says, “I wanted to complete half century in Rex. I had decided to resign after that. Everyone is feeling sad. We have all worked together for so many years. It feels like when the daughter gets married and leaves her mother’s house.”

In 1951, Paul registered a mortgage deed of 5,09,000 with the Palai Central Bank, Ernakulam. As he was unable to pay the mortgage, the judge ordered liquidation. The bank then bought the property. A decade later the bank ran into trouble and in 1960, the High Court of Karnataka ordered liquidation of the bank.

On March 20, 1961, there was a public auction in the parking lot of the theatre and Nand Lal Kapur, Anil Kapur’s great grandfather, decided to buy the property. Much to his good fortune, he found on his arrival that there no other bidders. He then dutifully paid ₹ 8,51,000 and Rex was his.

The first film shown under the new management was Sleeping Beauty in 1962. Premchand adds, “The longest running film was Return of the Dragon in 1979 which ran for 29 weeks (an unbroken record). The Sylvester Stallone starrer Cliffhanger ran for 20 weeks and the Malayalam film Chattakari ran for 16 weeks.”

In those days anything that ran for 4 weeks and more was considered good.”

Some other big movies that played in Rex were Satan Never Sleeps (1963), The Parent Trap (1965), The Night of the Generals (1968), The Professionals (1968), The Omen (1978) and in later years, the Harry Potter series, Kabali (which resulted in the all-time highest collection), Baahubali, Enthiran, Life of Pi, Stree, and Avengers: Infinity War.

Kapur says, “My uncle, Kamal Kapur, who is the Managing Director of the company, had great interest in cinemas. By the time he refurbished Rex in 1974, he was the one from our family who was really running it. Then he added Symphony and Imperial also. He was once termed the Cinema Man of Cantonment.”

And since he grew up watching movies from the best seat in the house - the projection room, it was but natural that Kapur too joined the business. “I would do the day-to-day jobs and look after everything. I drove the cinema for 20 years before Abhishek Sood (present General Manager) came in 1999.”

According to Kapur, “The 70s were the Golden Era for theatres in terms of occupancy. The great thing about cinema was that it brought society together, especially in that time.”

“We had a manager, Om Prakash Khanna, popularly known as Mamaji. He was a legend,” says Anil Kapur. “We would open the counter 30 minutes or an hour before the movie depending on the crowd for the film. We had a fixed advance booking timing of 10 am to 1 pm and 7 pm to 8 pm. “Mamaji would open the counter for a 3 pm show and he would allow the queue to go till the gate. I would tell him people are wasting their time. Why do you make them stand in the queue? To which his inimitable response was, ‘People will see the queue and if it’s long, they will think oh, the movie is good and come for it.’ ”

As for the situation more recently, Kapur says, “Abhishek is the person who changed the scenario at Rex. He gets different movies in a week to the extent where it even baffles the distributors and my uncle. There was a time where we played seven different films in one day. It’s like a multiplex without being one.”

Sood adds, “The earliest show we have ever had was Kabali at 5 am. In 2003, PVR Cinemas opened and we thought that showing only English films wouldn’t be feasible. So, we began to screen Hindi movies, starting with Janasheen.”

On why Rex is shutting down, Kapur says, “The one-acre property is hardly utilized. Though it does well on a weekend, on a weekday the percentage falls.” As for what will come in its place, he says, “We are entering into a joint venture with the Prestige Group. The plan is to have restaurants, shops and a multiplex with four screens.”

So, if you want to refresh your memory of the fryums or the piercing bell warning patrons to get back to their seats it is time to walk down Brigade Road and take a sharp turn into Rex.

“The staff are like family to us,” says Anil Kapur. “Our maintenance staff especially are really the heart and soul of the place. Many of them have been with us for over 30 years. And we have taken care of them by providing them loans, benefits and awards. Some of them had tears in their eyes when we told them about the closure. But we have told them that we will help them get jobs.”

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