With photographs and additional reporting by Dani Charles
On Sunday night, Shanthi, one of Chennai’s oldest theatres, brought down its curtains for the final time with the last shows of Captain America: Civil War and 24. Since its establishment in 1960, the theatre has been owned by veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan’s family. It was initially co-owned by Sivaji Ganesan and the owners of Anand theatre. Named after Sivaji’s oldest daughter, Shanthi, the space has been more than just a theatre, especially for Sivaji Ganesan fans. Watching a Sivaji film in this theatre is a special experience for them.
The Shanthi theatre is set to be demolished in three months, and a new complex with a multiplex will take its place.
We visit the theatre on its last day.
With seating for 1,212 people, Shanthi was the first air-conditioned theatre on Mount Road. The first movie screened here was the Telugu-Tamil bilingual, Thooya Ullam (1961), starring Akkineni Nageshwara Rao. The first Sivaji Ganesan movie screened was Paava Mannippu, directed by A Bhimsingh, on March 16, 1961.
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Raghavendran, a staunch Sivaji fan, recounts his experience with the theatre, and what it means to him. He watched his first film, Paava Mannipu, at this theatre when he was just seven years old. He recalls, “Since then, it has been a ritual of sorts for me. I would come down to Shanthi two days before Nadigar Thilagam’s film would release, to make arrangements. There were almost 10,000 fan clubs for him in Tamil Nadu, and about a hundred of them would gather at the Shanthi theatre to celebrate the first day of the film’s release. There would be massive competition among us to take up the work. From a hundred rows of colorful festoons, to star-shaped lamps, the whole place would look like a thiruvizha.”
We ask Raghavendran why watching a film at Shanthi was different from watching films at other theatres. “It is the intimacy we share,” he says. The management has always been accommodating of Sivaji fans and has supported them. “Shanthi was like a home away from home. In fact during my younger years, I think I spent more time here than my actual home. So I must thank the management, and especially Mr. Venugopal, for supporting us and giving us freedom. In fact he used to let us stay at the theatre overnight so we could finish the decorations before the release.”
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Although the theatre has been a bastion for movies of the Sivaji family, interestingly, there was a time when Raj Kapoor’s Hindi movie, Sangam, was preferred over a Sivaji Ganesan film. Sangam released in July 1964, and the movie was so popular in Chennai, that it ran for 188 days. In September, Sivaji Ganesan Puthiya Paravai, was released. But surprisingly, the Shanthi management didn’t take Sangam off the screens, and Sivaji had to renovate the Paragon theatre nearby and release it there. The film did, however, see a re-release in 2010 at Shanthi.
At a time when a 50-day run at theatres was seen as an achievement, Shanthi was a theatre where films like Chandramukhi (produced by Sivaji Productions) had an 808-day run, with a daily noon show at the Sai Shanthi screen.
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On Sunday, many Sivaji fans were present at the theatre, to bid goodbye to their second home, and hoping to be reunited soon. We found this poem, an ode to the theatre on the fan website www.nadigarthilagam.com:
Even though Shanthi is facing the fate of other old day theatres like Gaeity, Anand, Blue Diamond, and Sapphire, Raghavendran says that he personally welcomes the move, “The theatre is an old structure. And moreover the new building will house a multiplex with the name Shanthi. So it is welcome. I just hope that the new building looks similar to our very own Shanthi, and that one screen of this multiplex is reserved for screening classics. And that we fans can continue enjoy watching our idol on screen.”
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