Metro Cinema, Marine Lines, 1938. The iconic stepped tower with the projecting fin and corner entrance still exists, a part of the identity of the five-lane junction on which the cinema stands. The interiors of the elegant single-screen cinema were demolished in 2005 to make room for multiplex screens within the preserved facade. The ongoing lockdown has been particularly harsh on the South Mumbai single-screen movie palaces including Regal, Eros, Liberty, New Empire and Capitol. Their closure has led to mounting losses. In such circumstances, are expensive retrofitting and adaptive re-use models as that of Metro and Eros, the only way for the survival of our Art Deco heritage?

Metro Cinema, Marine Lines, 1938. The iconic stepped tower with the projecting fin and corner entrance still exists, a part of the identity of the five-lane junction on which the cinema stands. The interiors of the elegant single-screen cinema were demolished in 2005 to make room for multiplex screens within the preserved facade. The ongoing lockdown has been particularly harsh on the South Mumbai single-screen movie palaces including Regal, Eros, Liberty, New Empire and Capitol. Their closure has led to mounting losses. In such circumstances, are expensive retrofitting and adaptive re-use models as that of Metro and Eros, the only way for the survival of our Art Deco heritage?

Metro Cinema, Marine Lines, 1938. The iconic stepped tower with the projecting fin and corner entrance still exists, a part of the identity of the five-lane junction on which the cinema stands. The interiors of the elegant single-screen cinema were demolished in 2005 to make room for multiplex screens within the preserved facade. The ongoing lockdown has been particularly harsh on the South Mumbai single-screen movie palaces including Regal, Eros, Liberty, New Empire and Capitol. Their closure has led to mounting losses. In such circumstances, are expensive retrofitting and adaptive re-use models as that of Metro and Eros, the only way for the survival of our Art Deco heritage?

Metro Cinema, Marine Lines, 1938. The iconic stepped tower with the projecting fin and corner entrance still exists, a part of the identity of the five-lane junction on which the cinema stands. The interiors of the elegant single-screen cinema were demolished in 2005 to make room for multiplex screens within the preserved facade. The ongoing lockdown has been particularly harsh on the South Mumbai single-screen movie palaces including Regal, Eros, Liberty, New Empire and Capitol. Their closure has led to mounting losses. In such circumstances, are expensive retrofitting and adaptive re-use models as that of Metro and Eros, the only way for the survival of our Art Deco heritage?

Metro Cinema, Marine Lines, 1938. The iconic stepped tower with the projecting fin and corner entrance still exists, a part of the identity of the five-lane junction on which the cinema stands. The interiors of the elegant single-screen cinema were demolished in 2005 to make room for multiplex screens within the preserved facade. The ongoing lockdown has been particularly harsh on the South Mumbai single-screen movie palaces including Regal, Eros, Liberty, New Empire and Capitol. Their closure has led to mounting losses. In such circumstances, are expensive retrofitting and adaptive re-use models as that of Metro and Eros, the only way for the survival of our Art Deco heritage?

Metro Cinema, Marine Lines,1938. Built by Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Corporation, Metro Cinema was inaugurated on 8th June 1938 premiering the musical comedy “Broadway Melody”. New York architect and noted theatre designer Thomas White Lamb was responsible for the design which was executed by supervising architect D. W. Ditchburn of Bombay. The cinema was originally designed as a four storey mixed use building housing shops at the street level, offices on the upper floors and a 1500-seater auditorium. Image 1 Credit: Bombay Deco by Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra