Cinemas in Sri Lanka then and now-By H. M. Nissanka Warakaulle

Regal Cinema, Colombo (Picture courtesy Cinema Treasures: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/26186 )

Source:Island

Tracing the history of cinemas in Sri Lanka brings back nostalgic memories to the older folks who were regular filmgoers. Whilst many of the old cinema halls in the city of Colombo are still in existent some of them have disappeared from the scene.

Regal theatre was and still is an outstanding cinema hall, constructed in the style of an opera house with balconies on the sides. This is situated in the heart of Colombo and accessible from all parts of the city. This cinema belonged to the Ceylon Theatres circuit. The Regal screened English films, except whenever they used it for the premier screening of an important Sinhala film of a reputed Director or Producer.

The next important cinema in Colombo was the Savoy cinema in Wellawatte. This cinema too, screened only English films, except in rare instances when the premier of a Sinhala movie is screened. It was in the Savoy that the then famous rock and roll film ‘Rock Around The Clock’ with Bill Haley and His Comets was screened. And what a pandemonium it created on the first day this film was screened, I believe, as most of the young persons who were in the hall got onto the small stage in front of the screen and started dancing! The management had to summon the police to stop it.

The other cinemas of that vintage were the Majestic, the Empire and the New Olympia, all three of them screened only English films. Majestic and Empire belonged to the Ceylon Theatres circuit and New Olympia was owned by one Cader.

Of the other older cinemas was the Elphinstone, which screened Sinhala, Tamil and Hindi films. Close to the Elphinstone was the Tower Hall which was converted into a cinema hall after a fairly long stint as a theatre for Sinhala dramas. The Tower Hall showed a jumble of films ranging from English to Sinhala and Hindi movies. Both these cinemas lost their status and were converted to drama theatres.

In addition to these cinemas, the other very old cinema halls in the city of Colombo were the Kingsley in Kotahena and Gaiety in Gintupitiya (both screened Tamil films), Crown on Sangaraja Mawatha, Capitol on Armour Street, Plaza, Sapphire and Roxy (which is now known as Savoy) in Wellawatte, Gamini, which screened mainly Sinhala movies, next to St. Joseph’s College, at the junction, and the Fawn on Union Place which screened English films that had been screened in other cinemas earlier. Of these only the Crown is still functioning and as was done earlier, only Hindi films from Bollywood are screened. The Gamini and Sapphire cinemas were burnt down during the 1983 riots as they belonged to Tamil persons. The strange thing is that the conductors of buses passing the places where these cinema halls used to be, still call out to passengers to get off mentioning the names of the cinema halls which are no more, oblivious to the non-existence of the edifices.

The building of the Fawn cinema was later converted into a car showroom of Carmart, the local agents for Peugeot and Volkswagen cars at that time.

Later a few other cinemas came up within the city of Colombo. Of these the first was the Liberty cinema, owned by Jabir A. Cader, where the first film shown was ‘White Christmas’ with Bing Crosby. Then the Rio cinema was built on the then Parson Street (now Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawatha) and the first film shown in this cinema was ‘South Pacific’ a Rogers and Hammerstein musical film. The Navah cinema was built on the side street next to the Rio where only South Indian Tamil films were screened. The other cinema screening Tamil films only was the Eros cinema in Pamankada. During the time of the aforementioned riots the owner displayed graffiti on the parapet wall indicating that the cinema belonged to a Sinhalese person, mentioning him by name. This was to avoid the fate that befell the other cinemas that were set ablaze presuming it belonged to a Tamil person. It still continues to show Kollywood Tamil films.

Later on, two cinema halls came up in Borella, the Lido and the Ritz, and Impala on Cotta Road and Samantha in Dematagoda. These four cinemas screened films of Sinhala, Hindi and Tamil languages.

Most of these cinemas are now non-existent. The Majestic was demolished and the Majestic City came up in its place, but within the premises there are two Majestic cinemas known as Majestic Cineplex. A few new cinema complexes have come up in Colombo, such as the Cine City, Excel World, Scope and Liberty Lite. A new cinema hall was also built in the shopping arcade in the former race course premises.

Shifting from Colombo to Kandy, there were not that many cinema halls as in Colombo. The Regal of the Ceylon Theatres circuit was the most well-known cinema in Kandy. This cinema started as the Empire and later its nomenclature was changed to Regal, which name it still retains. The Regal used to screen English films as the evening show and Sinhala, Hindi or Tamil movies as the late show. On the same road the Regal was located, was the Wembley Theatre which screened mainly Sinhala films and also Bollywood and Kollywood films.

Then there was the Wales Theatre which originally started in front of the old public market and had to be demolished when the new market building came up. The owner was given land above Torrington Road. But this too had to be demolished when the new DS Senanayake Public Library came up. When it was in existence Hindi and Tamil films were screened at the Wales.

In the early 1950’s another cinema hall was built above Trinity College. The owner, Lazarus, named it Laza using part of his name. After the cinema was sold to another person, the new owner rechristened the cinema as the Odeon. This cinema showed English films that were screened at the New Olympia in Colombo.

The last cinema hall in Kandy was the Bogambara cinema. Many of the serial films were screened in this cinema. When the new Bogambara Stadium was constructed this cinema was demolished.

Later the names of some of the cinemas belonging to the Ceylon Theatres circuit were changed to Regal. These were the Tivoli in Nuwara Eliya, Chandralekha in Gampola, the one in Diyatalawa and Rajah in Jaffna as far as I recollect.

A very interesting cinema hall I remember was the Royal cinema in Bandarawela. This cinema was on the upper floor of a garage belonging to Walker & Grieg situated on Main Street, so that the patrons had to climb a flight of steps to get to the cinema hall.

Another important aspect about cinemas was a company known as Imperial Talkies which used to take the cinema to places where there were no permanent cinemas, pitch a large tent and show films with the help of a generator. This was very much appreciated and patronized by the village folk who would not have been able to watch a film otherwise, during those days.

At present, there are cinema halls in almost every nook and corner of Sri Lanka and people do not have to venture out long distances to watch a movie they would like to watch.