A battle for Delhi's soul in the glare of streaming services, multiplexes

In the hushed darkness, just before a projector whirrs to life, you can almost hear — whispers of a million shared memories.

- Karn Pratap Singh and Snehil Sinha

It's the rustle of samosas being passed down a row in crinkled newspaper, the clink of chilled glass bottles of Limca or Goldspot shared between siblings, and the collective cheers and whistles in the hall as a hero makes his entrance For generations of Delhiites who came of age before the turn of the millennium, this was a sacred weekend ritual — the single-screen cinema experience.

These were not just buildings of brick and mortar; they were the epicentres of family life, where the dreams of millions were projected in 70mm glory. This is where generations marked time with Sunday matinées, first dates trembled in the dark, and families formed core memories that would be reminisced over decades.

Today, in a city once dotted with nearly 70 such palaces of dreams, only four surviving single-screen theatres stand as sentinels to a bygone era: Delite in Daryaganj, Liberty in Karol Bagh, Amba near Shakti Nagar, and Gagan in Nand Nagri.

They are more than just theatres; they are repositories of nostalgia, monuments to resilience, holding within their worn seats and fading walls echoes of laughter and tears — a part of the very soul of Delhi. They are the final reel in a story that began with the birth of a nation and is now flickering, against the glare of multiplexes and the convenience of streaming services.

A fading marquee

The dawn of the 21st century brought with it the multiplex — a convenient, climate-controlled experience that often nestled inside shopping malls. It offered a sense of luxury and choice that the old halls could not. Then came the back-to-back blows of demonetisation, which slashed cash-dependent sales overnight, and the Covid-19 pandemic, which shuttered theatres for months and trained an entire population to find its entertainment at home on OTT platforms.