Remnants of the silver screen’s golden days
Cinema halls once drew a huge audience, offering an escapism that enthralled viewers, allowing them to forget, even if only for a few hours, the many harsh realities of life.
People of all socio-economic backgrounds, especially the middle class, used to flock to the cinema halls, which remained a major entertainment medium for decades, until they began to decline. Once a weekly adventure for teenagers and adults alike, it has now become perhaps a yearly venture for most.
The advent of fast internet and portable devices and OTT platforms began to provide audiences with multitudes of entertainment contents and made going to the cinema a almost a thing of the past for most cinema halls across the country.
This has affected the whole cinema industry and the axe has fallen mostly on the neck of the hundreds of cinema halls which once held house-full shows throughout each month but now only entertain a rapidly diminishing number of audience for each show.
Since 2000, more than nine hundred cinema halls have been closed down and only around 175 are still operating. These photos show ruins of old cinema halls, pictures of empty theatres that are on the verge of closing down, and the people working in the industry in a state of despair.
