Metro cinema reborn as film-thematic mall

Kolkata: Indian retail industry is all set to get its first thematic mall at the city’s newly renovated iconic

Metro Cinema

building, which was once owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) of Hollywood.

Metro Central

, owned by the Future Group, will run open film shows a big screen inside the mall as a theme from April this year. Films, which ran successfully in Metro cinema in its heyday, will be screened as per yesteryears’ show timings — noon, matinee, evening and night.

Retailers’ body feels that it is a step in right direction. Talking to TOI, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of Retailers Association of India, pointed out that experiential shopping will be the order of the day. “You cannot differentiate on product which will be crucial is the consumer experience. We are actually doing a conference later in this month on this issue,” he added. According to him, experience creates mindshare. A theme like film could be a good USP for a mall or a hyper retail store. A retail industry insider feels that other themes like cricket, festival, too, could be super hit as theme in India.

The chief executive officer of Central and Brand Factory, Vishnu Prasad, said customers will get to see those old classics in Metro Central through out the day. “Every week, one new film will be shown. So while shopping, one can shop, munch snacks and watch classic movies in unison. We are making a list of movies that were screened in Metro cinema in a span of seven decades,” he added.

Metro was established by MGM in 1935, with the screening of ‘Way Out West’. The city’s iconic was closed around 10 years back. Metro Cinema used to screen only MGM films till 1960’s. According to old-timers, some of the all time classics that was first screened in Metro, in India, include Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland starrer Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur of Charlton Heston, Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Alec Guinness starrer Doctor Zhivago along with others.

Later on, some Bollywood superhits like Big B’s Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Agneepath, which ran successfully for months in this iconic hall, will be screened.

Manish Agarwal, CEO (east) of Future Group, indicated that going forward, they might open more thematic stores depending on the location and the venue. “We are very much optimistic about this experiment,” he added. Currently, Central, which is under Future Lifestyle, has 45 stores across the country with four million square feet area. Every year the company will open 5-6 new stores with an investment of Rs 200-250 crore. By end of 2020, it is targeting 58 stores.


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