This location, the Donlands Theatre was another of a handful of great Bollywood Theatres during the 1970s & up until the mid-1980s. Many of the great stars shown included Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan among others… owners included, the Late Charlie Mehra of Friends Films & The Executive Motor Hotel & Mr. Darshan Sahota. Oh but wait… this great venue was not ONLY a cinema house, some of South Asian Entertainment’s elite also graced this stage. With names like the Late Parvez Mehdi alongside tabla master Ustad Abdus Sattar Tari in December of 1982,renowned film playback singer K. Yesudas with Sujata & others in March of 1983, not to mention the Late Jani Babu with Qatil Banu & Dilawar Babu in Oct. of that year + countless Mushairas (Poetry Readings) with Indian, Pakistani and North American (Canada & US) elite names..This is where we had a slightly smaller & a touch more northern version of “Little India” with stores like Anita Saree Centre, Uma Sarees & a tiny mall / food court in the form of “Chandni Chowk”.
Actually… THIS Parliament Cinema never closed in 1979. The fact of the matter was that it became a hugely popular Indian & Pakistani movie house from 1973 that was owned by South Asian Media architect & patriarch, SGP Jafry (on the cusp of celebrating our industry’s 50th year) where major films of the time were with names like Amitabh Bachchan (yep, Aishwariya Rai’s F-In Law). This theatre did in fact continue to go until something like… 1983 or 1984 when our Indian & Pakistani films, then on videotapes essentially killed the businesses of all our movie houses.
This location, the Donlands Theatre was another of a handful of great Bollywood Theatres during the 1970s & up until the mid-1980s. Many of the great stars shown included Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan among others… owners included, the Late Charlie Mehra of Friends Films & The Executive Motor Hotel & Mr. Darshan Sahota. Oh but wait… this great venue was not ONLY a cinema house, some of South Asian Entertainment’s elite also graced this stage. With names like the Late Parvez Mehdi alongside tabla master Ustad Abdus Sattar Tari in December of 1982,renowned film playback singer K. Yesudas with Sujata & others in March of 1983, not to mention the Late Jani Babu with Qatil Banu & Dilawar Babu in Oct. of that year + countless Mushairas (Poetry Readings) with Indian, Pakistani and North American (Canada & US) elite names..This is where we had a slightly smaller & a touch more northern version of “Little India” with stores like Anita Saree Centre, Uma Sarees & a tiny mall / food court in the form of “Chandni Chowk”.
Actually… THIS Parliament Cinema never closed in 1979. The fact of the matter was that it became a hugely popular Indian & Pakistani movie house from 1973 that was owned by South Asian Media architect & patriarch, SGP Jafry (on the cusp of celebrating our industry’s 50th year) where major films of the time were with names like Amitabh Bachchan (yep, Aishwariya Rai’s F-In Law). This theatre did in fact continue to go until something like… 1983 or 1984 when our Indian & Pakistani films, then on videotapes essentially killed the businesses of all our movie houses.