Liberty Cinema to become Mumbai's culture hub

MUMBAI: Liberty Cinema is arguably one of Mumbai's most sumptuous art deco theatres. But ever since 2005 when multiplexes began opening, it has had few takers. As with all single screen cinemas, competition from multiplexes and home video has taken a toll on business.
In an attempt to make the theatre sustainable, owner Nazir Hoosein, 72, is expanding Liberty's offerings to include art forms such as alternative cinema and performances.While screenings of Hindi movies will continue, the theatre will host festivals of foreign films and perhaps even drama and music concerts. The first such event is a festival of French cinema organized by the Alliance Francaise from June 22-24. "The idea is that the property survives," Hoosein says. "The idea is not to make me a multi-millionaire. That would happen if I sold it."
Liberty has also been crippled, Hoosein says, by the entertainment tax-theatres have to pay 45%-and the Rent Act. One wing of Liberty has offices but because the building falls within the purview of the Rent Act, Hoosein says he can only charge his tenants Re 1 per sq ft.
Liberty opened on March 21, 1949, with Mehboob Khan's Andaz, starring Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Dilip Kumar. It was built by Hoosein's father, Habib Hoosein, and designed by British architect M A Riddley Abbott. When Abbott died a year after construction began in 1947, Indian architects John Fernandes and Waman Namjoshi took over. They used wood panelling of Canadian cedar and Burma teak and art deco motifs such as ziggurat door handles, a mirror with cascading border and fountains with recessed lights.
Hoosein says his father ran 45 small cinemas that catered to army men stationed between Mumbai, Nashik and Pune during World War II. After the war, Habib Hoosein built a single theatre. "By then, Hindi cinema was beginning to cry out for a flag-bearer," says Hoosein, who was nine when Andaz premiered. "Eros, Regal and Strand were English theatres. There was a need and we catered to that."
Hoosein got involved in the theatre after his father died in 1971. He had a career in motor sports-he founded the Himalayan Rally and has been a steward for Formula One. Hoosein fought a legal battle to retrieve the theatre from a group of investors that had been running it. By early 1990s when he took control, Liberty "was like a porn house. It got the lousiest films and wasn't well maintained".
Liberty's fortunes were turned around by Sooraj Barjatya's Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, which ran houseful for 44 weeks. The film played there for a total 125 weeks.
Theatre director Vikram Kapadia, who was consulted about the hall's suitability for performances, says Hoosein's agenda "is fantastic for the arts. When I revisited it, the splendour of cinema came back to me".
Iconic theatre
Liberty opened in 1949 with Mehboob Khan's Andaz starring Dilip Kumar, Nargis and Raj Kapoor. V Shantaram's Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje (1955) and Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) are among the films that had successful runs at Liberty. In 1994, Sooraj Barjatya's Hum Aapke Hain Kaun ran to packed houses for 44 straight weeks. The film played at the theatre for a total of 125 weeks. Hoosein says that Barjatya wanted to premiere the film at Liberty on the condition that a new sound system be installed. "I said to him 'That will cost me Rs 10 lakh,'" Hoosein says. "'What happens if your picture bombs?' Barjatya said 'If our picture bombs, we will pay you Rs 10 lakh and take the system away.'"