Modhumita Cinema Hall to close down after Eid

One of the country’s historic theatres, Modhumita Cinema Hall in Motijheel area of Dhaka had been opened 58 years ago. This decades-old theatre was in a loop of being open for a few months and then closed for a few months during last few years.

Owner of the theatre Iftekhar Uddin Naushad said Thursday afternoon that their theatre will be completely shut down after the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha. A multi-storey building will be constructed in its stead. And the new building will have a Cineplex.

Iftekhar Uddin Naushad said that they had to take this decision from the family. He added that the Modhumita Cinema Hall did not have much business in the past few years, except on special occasions.  

Even then, Iftekhar Uddin Naushad held on to this ancestral business. But recently he had to accept the proposal of demolishing the current theatre and build a multi-storey building there based on their family decision.

Iftekhar Uddin Naushad told Prothom Alo, “Films are not being released nowdays in our country. If there are no films, there is no point in keeping our cinema hall running either. Now we will wait for Shakib Khan’s Eid film. I heard that Shakib’s film will be released on Eid-ul-Azha as well. When Shakib’s film is released on Eid-ul-Azha, we will stretch the screenings for two months.”

“Then, after releasing another film of Shakib Khan on Eid-ul-Azha, we will close down the theatre for good. We don’t get any films to do business during other times of the year apart from the two Eids. Such a cinema hall cannot run when it’s left empty for months at a stretch, right?” he continued.

In the course of the conversation Naushad said, “We are just counting losses by keeping it open. So, we finalised the decision to close down Modhumita two weeks ago. While other members in our family had already been in favour of closing it down for the last couple years, I was the one against it till now. Now, I also agree with my brothers that this is the right decision. There are no films, let’s just shut it, I said.”

“Recently, we had brought a new sound system and had carried out a lot of renovations at the theatre. We had to invest a lot of money in that. But even then, if we could release films regularly and have decent films to do business, there was no problem in investing.”

In the last two years, we have been able to do some business only on the films ‘Priyotoma’, ‘Toofan’ and ‘Dorod’. We had to count losses on all other films that were screened at the theatre apart from these. Now there’s no films at all. There is no point in leaving such a big institution idle like this. But, we’ll keep a cinema hall even when we build a multi-storey building there,” he added.

On 1 December 1967, speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, Justice Abdul Jabbar Khan had inaugurated the Modhumita Cinema Hall. Iftekhar Uddin Naushad said, “I still remember that day clearly. The show started with the film ‘Cleopatra’ starring Elizabeth Taylor. There was such interest among the spectators on the first day. We started with modern sound (magnetic sound) system from the very first day.”

Siraj Uddin, a businessman from Old Dhaka, was the founder of the hall. He had placed an advertisement in the Daily Ittefaq asking for a suitable name for the cinema hall. Many people suggested names and sent them. From those suggestions, Siraj Uddin chose the name Modhumita and rewarded the person, who suggested the name, with Tk 500 at that time.

Siraj Uddin’s son Iftekhar Uddin Naushad is the current managing director of the cinema hall and the four sons of Siraj Uddin are the joint owners. The cinema hall can house 1,221 spectators at a time.