They say, every beautiful thing comes to an end; dreams and phenomenon too. Talking of them, a phenomenon that happened almost 20 years back by the name of ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ had been running in the ‘Maratha Mandir’ of Mumbai since then.
Today, after completing 1009 weeks at the Box Office, the Yash Raj Films’ ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, starring SRK and Kajol, will be taken down from the theatre.
Film critic Taran Adarsh shared the news on Twitter.
The movie, which won 10 Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director at the 1996 edition of the ceremony, had been running uninterrupted at this single-theatre cinema hall at its usual playing time slot of 11:30 am.
Manoj Desai, owner of G7 Multiples and Gaiety Galaxy and the managing director of Maratha Mandir told IANS: “Yes, it’s true that we have pulled down the show. Today (Thursday) morning show was the last show of DDLJ at Maratha Mandir.”
“The morning show which was the last show of DDLJ had an audience of 210,” he added.
When asked about the reason behind closing of the shows of the film, he said: “Earlier we had lots of audience to watch this film that included people from abroad. Now there is hardly any audience coming in.
“We have 1105 seats in one screen and out of which hardly 100 to 200 seats used to get occupied so it doesn’t make sense to run it any longer.”
The normal tickets cost of this film was Rs. 20, Rs. 17 and Rs. 15 at the hall, drastically lower than what the multiplexes charge.
However he says now the other fresh films will get extra screens.
“Earlier because of DDLJ the other films does not used to get all the screens now it will be a benefit for fresh films which now can occupy the shows which was earlier occupied by DDLJ,” said Desai.
The cult love story starring SRK and Kajol, that released on October 19, 1995, gave the industry and the people of the world Raj and Simran as the epitome of pure love. The audience, thereby, are certainly not happy with this and have been taking to Twitter to express their disappointment over this.
‘Maratha Mandir’ and ‘Evergreen DDLJ’ started trending on Twitter in no time. Even the authorities at the theatre weren’t too pleased.
We are, however, a nation that can find humour in the deepest of sorrows.
With the coming down of DDLJ from the theatre, the dream of ‘once going to Mumbai and watching DDLJ in Maratha Mandir’ also comes crashing down, if you had one.