MUMBAI: The oldest movie hall in South Mumbai Liberty Cinema that had closed down for a few months is all set to reopen with Ekta Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj‘s Emraan Hashmi-starrer Ek Thi Dayaan on 19 April.
Since the cinema hall was built in 1947, the year of Indian Independence, its founder Habib Hoosein decided to name it Liberty. The cinema hall screens Hindi movies.
Some films have run at Liberty for a considerable period of time. Mehboob Khan‘s Mother India ran for a whole year starting October 1957 at the same hall. Almost three decades later Rajshri‘s Hum Aapke Hain Kaun] ran for 105 weeks in regular shows and 16 weeks in the matinee shows from 1994 onwards till it completed its 100th week run in August 1996.
Balaji has decided to support the single screen with its other heavy-duty forthcoming releases like Shootout At Wadala, Lootera and Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai...Again. Said Liberty Cinema owner Vazir Hussain, "We have four films lined up. We will see how it goes."
The cinema hall had closed down for a couple of months in the wake of increasing competition from neighbouring cinemas outlets like Sterling, Eros, New Excelsior and Regal.