MUSSOORIE: After a lull of 14 years, the iconic Vasu cinema hall of the city is all set to come to life again. The British-era movie hall was also called Majestic back then. Opened in 1936, the curtains were drawn on the single-screen movie hall about 14 years ago.
Now, the locals are as enthusiastic about the revival of the cinema hall as are the three businessmen who funded the project.
The hall will be opened with two screens and a new name-- Ritz.
The three movie enthusiast businessmen-- Rajat Aggarwal, Sandeep Sawhney and Rajat Kapoor-- had taken up the task to revive the movie theatre to its old glory. The theatre will be thrown open to public in a week.
“Well, it was a big responsibility to bring an essential culture of a place back to it, is not it,” said Aggarwal, whose movie bug made him seek partners. Soon, Sawhney and Kapoor stepped in and the trio put in their money and time to bring alive the dream of the reviving the old theatre.
Sawhney hopes that the hall will not just bring back the movie watching culture but also some revenue to the town.
Javed Khan, who was a manager at Vasu for 20 years before it was shut down, said, “It was a sad decision to shut the hall but there was nothing that could have been done. It was a bleeding venture then. It is nice to see the hall open again,” he said.
Kiran Dimri, then a young wife and now a mother to two grownups, looked rather relieved about the movie hall reopening.
“Finally my children will not go to Dehradun for movies," she said. Raj Arora, an old timer, recalled the good old movie watching days of his youth.
“Oh, there have been times when I saw three movies in a day. I still remember a day when we saw an 11 am show, went to Kempty Fall, came back and saw another one. I am happy to hear that the Vasu cinema hall is being revived,” Arora said.
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