The Decline of India’s Single-Screen Cinemas: A Vanishing Cultural Era

Demolition has begun at Bengaluru's Urvashi Cinema, a 1,200-seat movie palace that opened in the 1970s and served as a landmark for generations of filmgoers, marking another loss for India's shrinking number of single-screen theaters.

The structure is being dismantled as single-screen cinemas across the country face mounting pressure from multiplexes, online streaming services, escalating property values, and the high cost of maintaining aging facilities. Researchers estimate that India had roughly 14,000 single-screen halls during the 1980s, but that count has dropped to approximately 2,000 today.

Local businesses that once thrived alongside the large auditoriums are feeling the impact of the closures. Manjunath, who operates a shop opposite Urvashi Cinema and uses one name, watched as seats were pulled out and discarded outside.

“The theatre came up in the 1970s… I was so happy when it opened,” he said. “That was the rush… now I have a lot of free time. But what to do? There is barely any crowd.”

Manjunath

Documenting a Vanishing Era

The decline of these grand, cavernous venues has altered how audiences experience films in India. Photographer Hemant Chaturvedi spent seven years documenting the remains of single-screen venues across 1,000 towns, photographing 1,350 cinemas in total. His archive records ornate facades, peeling paint, and decaying auditoriums.

Chaturvedi, a former Bollywood cinematographer with a three-decade career, recalled the interactive atmosphere of the older halls, where audiences would cheer, jump on seats, and throw money toward the screen during dramatic moments.

“Now that old ecosystem is fading, and the charm is being lost,” he said. “To me, the new cinemas have lost the charm. The multiplexes are a generic, cold experience.”

Hemant Chaturvedi

Surviving Halls and Continuing Traditions

Despite widespread closures, a few single-screen cinemas continue to operate and draw large crowds. In Bengaluru, Mukunda Cinemas regularly fills seats, with hundreds of patrons lining up before dawn for early-morning screenings of films starring Kannada-language actor Yash.

Santosh, a 47-year-old businessman who uses one name, waited in line with hundreds of others outside Mukunda Cinemas as crowds set off fireworks ahead of a 6:00 am show.

Only in the single screen theatres can they take the cinema to the next level, it increases the tradition of cinema.

Santosh

Veerain Reddy, the third generation of his family running the 50-year-old theater, noted that keeping the establishment open presents ongoing financial hurdles due to inflation and competition.

But people who are really passionate are still trying to maintain these single-screen theatres, where people come to watch and celebrate cinema.

Veerain Reddy

Another survivor is Mumbai’s Regal Cinema, an Art Deco theater that opened in 1933. Vanshika, a 23-year-old fan, contrasted the historic hall with modern developments.

“The rest of them feel very artificial, commercial, very blingy,” she said. “But Bombay has little places which remind us of the old times.”

Vanshika