Bengaluru: Rex Theatre situated in Brigade Road, Bengaluru will open its door to film buffs for the last time on December 31. Through a joint venture with the Prestige Group the iconic theatre will turn into a mall and a multiplex with four screens.
“There is one acre of land here and the theatre occupies very little space. Even if we refurbish it, the cost would be too high and it is not feasible,” says Anil Kapur, the joint managing director of Rex Theatre.
Rao Saheb Pasupalety Venugopal Naidu bought one acre of land on Bangalore Cantonment’s prestigious Brigade Road in the late thirties. Pasupalety, who is also known as PV Paul, built two auditoriums in the land he bought, and theatres began screening films in the forties.
The Greater Union, an Australian company, approached Kamal Kapur, the managing director of the company, in 2008, with a plan to build four new screens. But since Rex’s property was tenanted, it became challenging to vacate the tenants, and the plan was shelved.
Several other iconic single-screens in the erstwhile cantonment area were either shut down or converted into commercial spaces or multiplexes.
After the threatre is shut down, the new mall and multiplex will take three years to open. “Yes, the mall will be called Rex,” Anil says.
