Nainital’s iconic cinema hall to re-open on Feb 23

Nainital: The wait for all the movie lovers in Nainital finally ends. The almost 400-seat Capitol cinema hall in the “city of lakes” is gearing up for an opening by February 23. Tickets for the cinema hall will also be available online. Officials said its website is under construction.

The hall will open following an Uttarakhand high court order to restore dysfuntional cinema halls of Nainital in December last year. Work to restore the cinema hall is in full swing.

Rohitash Sharma, executive officer of the municipal corporation, Nainital, said, “The dedicated website for Capitol cinema hall is under construction and will soon start working. We will add more features to it in coming days.”

The town used to have two cinema halls — Ashoka and Capitol. Both halls had opened in the 1920s. Capitol mostly used to screen English films and classics of the bygone era. The cinema halls became popular especially after the decline of theatre culture in the hill town.

Both cinema halls shut down in 2004 after the lease granted by the municipal corporation expired. Since then, people of this hill station have not been able to watch a movie on the big screen.

After clisure of the halls, the municipal corporation leased out the shops in the premises of both buildings leaving the halls at the mercy of time.

The Ashoka is also likely to undergo renovations.
Earlier, in October 2015, the high court had ordered the restoration of cinema halls within three months.