THE REGAL CINEMA CELEBRATED ITS 95TH BIRTHDAY IN COLOMBO – SRI LANKA – By Leelananda Ihalagamage in Melbourne
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The old major cinemas that existed in many cities of the world have now disappeared. However, in many countries, some cinemas are maintained due to the cultural heritage they have. Cinema is a cultural heritage of the present world. A cultural expression. That is why the Regal Cinema in Colombo cannot be considered among the other cinemas that have been closed down in this country. Regal is the cultural heritage of local cinema.
The Regal Cinema in Colombo, Sri Lanka, was 95 years old in last July. After five years of (temporary) farewell to film screenings, remembering the past glory, the Regal Cinema located at the beginning of Slave Island, although its doors are closed, looks at the passers-by with an ageless body.
Why is the Regal Cinema, which opened on July 26, 1930, important in local cinema? Its birthday is a special celebration of local cinema in this country. In fact, the founders of the Regal Cinemas took the first step towards creating a local film industry against the invasion of foreign film businesses. There is no concept of local cinema that they did not build. It is certain that it will remain in the hands of Indian or other foreign film businessmen.
A. Ad. Andrew, C.W. Wagner, etc., who started the film exhibition in this country at the beginning of the twentieth century, were all Sri Lankans. Indian film history records reveal that Swamikannu Vincent, who started the film exhibition business in South India in 1905, obtained a film and projectors in this country to start the film exhibition business in that country. But by 1910, the rapidly growing Indian film industry had completely taken over the Sri Lankan film market, cutting off all avenues for Sri Lankan film businessmen.
Warwick Major, a pioneer film exhibitor in Madras, was the first Indian filmmaker to arrive in Sri Lanka.
He was the exhibitionist who built a cinema under the name of Empire, first on Malwatte Road in Pettah and then at number two on Parsons Road in Colombo. He also exhibited films at the Palace Theatre in Maradana. In 1920, he had to transfer both his cinemas to Madan Theatres, proving that it was difficult to compete alone in the face of a business empire. Madan Theatres, which had acquired Major’s Cinema, had by then built a cinema business network throughout Asia, based in Calcutta. In 1914, they entered the cinema business in Sri Lanka by taking the lease of the Palace Theatre in Maradana and taking control of the Public Hall in Baybrook Place, which was famous as a multipurpose hall. They also exhibited films and various plays there. In addition to the Empire Cinema on Parsons Road in Company Street, they also operated cinemas in Nuwara Eliya and Kandy under the name Empire. Later, the Elphinstone Cinema on the site of the Palace Theatre in Maradana and the Majestic Cinema in Bambalapitiya were built by Madan Theatres. Moreover, they were powerful enough to own all the emerging single cinema businesses in India and Sri Lanka at that time. The Madan Theatres empire at that time maintained a huge monopoly of hundreds of cinemas not only throughout India but also as far as Singapore and on the other hand, as far as Afghanistan and Iran.
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T.A.J. Noorbhai Madan Theatres, who produced the first film in the history of the country, Rajakiya Wickramaya (Royal Adventure,) and built the Trivolly Cinema (later Plaza) in Wellawatte, was constantly under the monopoly of Madan. No one was able to build a movement against Madan’s monopolistic movement until 1928. A few young men born in the Manipay area of Jaffna rallied for this. First, C.L. Thambiya, who joined the film exhibition at the Olympia Cinema in Maradana, later joined Chittampalam A. Gardiner, a teacher and a visionary. Manuel Savarimuthu was the other ally. Newspapers published at the time provide evidence that the hardships these three young men had to endure from Madan’s monopoly were not insignificant. Madan often went to court several times, claiming that he also owned the rights to the films he had imported. Finally, under the leadership of Gardiner, the three young men built a company with a large capital against Madan’s monopoly.
Founded in 1928 as Ceylon Theatres Limited (according to old newspaper advertisements, Lanka Nurthya Samagama), this company, when Gardiner arrived, was able to attract many leading Sinhala businessmen in the country to invest in it. It was also registered as a limited company on the Colombo Stock Exchange. D.S. Senanayake, as well as the Chilaw Koraya family, were among the main partners in the company. Noorbai, who was engaged in a solitary battle with Madan, also joined it. The company’s fiftieth anniversary announcement shows that the Board of Directors represented all races in the country. The Colombo Municipal Council called for a new lease on the Empire Cinema site on Parsons Road in 1929, as the lease term expired. For some reason, the Madan Company, which had been operating the Empire Cinema until then, lost the land. Instead, Ceylon Theatres won the new lease. Gardiner managed to completely remove the old temporary cinema and lay the foundation stone of a new cinema in one day. The foundation stone was laid on February 27, 1929. This day was a wonderful day, as on that day, another businessman paid for a new business house in front of the cinema, a symbol of his victorious journey. Surprisingly, these two buildings were located opposite each other. However, in two areas of Colombo. The cinema hall is in Company Street. Colombo 2. The other building that was built face to face was in Maradana, Colombo 10. The cinema hall that was built face to face that day was the Lake House building, also known as the Patthara Mahagedara. The first thing that is seen by anyone coming out of the Lake House is the Regal Cinema. It is remarkable that both young founders, who are challenging the new ventures of Wijewardene of the south and Gardiner of the north, are starting their businesses face to face. They probably did not expect that these two roads, the old Parsons Road, would be named after Gardiner and McCallum Road after Wijewardene in the future.
The Regal Cinema was not only built by a group of local businessmen with hundred percent local investment, but it was also built in a way that suited the modern world. Regal was the first cinema in the country to be built in a way that suited the era of talkies. Although the old Palace Hall at Maradana Junction was demolished and the modern Elphinstone Cinema was built on the site of Madan Theatres in 1926, talkies had not yet appeared in the world. When Regal Cinema opened, moviegoers in this country had already understood the joy of talkies. By then, the halls that had originally been silent movie theaters were being converted to talkies. Until then, public or Madan Theatres renamed the multi-purpose hall at Baybrook Place, Hunupitiya, Colombo, which was known as the Public Hall, the Empire and screened the talkie Melody of Love on 16 July 1929. The first cinema to be built here, the Wellawatte Plaza (then the Trivolari), was built to suit the silent film era.
There is a good reason for naming Gardiner Law’s new cinema as “the Regal.” The cinema that Madan operated at the same location was called the Empire. Regal means royal. Although the two companies had similar meanings, the competition between them was evident. This is made even clearer by the Majestic name of the huge cinema hall built by Madan in Bambalapitiya two years after losing the said land. Regal approached a cinema palace in terms of architecture rather than a traditional cinema hall (PICTURE PALACE). On the one hand, it was a direct challenge to Madan that the Elphinstone Cinema Hall built by Madan in 1926 was also built in the style of a cinema palace.
The cinema initially had a balcony and a ground floor with 900 seats. It was also the first time that box seats were allocated in a cinema hall in this country. The highest ticket price was four rupees and the lowest was fifty cents. The telephone number was 1004. The hall was also decorated in various beautiful colours. Many places, including the towers, were painted in gold. The Regal Stage was also built in a more robust way, so that other events could be held in addition to film screenings, if necessary. ,Although it was built as a cinema hall, it included a retractable stage technology and a luxurious sound system. All the comfortable seats were made by the Colombo Apothecary Company. When the British Queen visited Sri Lanka in 1953, the official ceremony was held at the Regal Cinema. The opening film of the cinema was The Captive Woman, produced by First National Pictures.
The first Sinhala film to be screened at the Regal Cinema, which was initially reserved for excellent English films, was Ashokamala, the second talkie film in the country. It was produced by the Ceylon Theatres Company. Ashokamala was released to the public on 10 April 1947 and its premiere was held the previous day, on the 9th, at the Regal Cinema under the patronage of the Speaker of the House, Mr. D.S. Senanayake and Mrs. At this time, D.S. Senanayake’s second son, Robert Senanayake, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Ceylon Theatres Company. (The Senanayakes contributed to the production of films in this country. Robert Parakrama Senanayake was a member of the production board of the film Kadawunu Poronduwa produced by S.M. Nayagam, as well as all the films produced by Ceylon Theatres, such as Ashokamala, Weradunu Kurumanama, and Peralena Iranama. It seems that even English films screened at Regal Cinema were films of some value. Later, the company began distributing Sinhala films. With that, the Elphinstone Cinema was dedicated to Sinhala films.
However, in 1994, the father and son of Ceylon Theatres, Albert Page, who was the Chairman and Anthony Page, who was the Managing Director, decided to dedicate the Regal Cinema exclusively to Sinhala films. The Regal was extremely popular as the inaugural cinema of the then prestigious Fifth Exhibition Circuit. At that time, the Regal Cinema fulfilled the meaning built by its pioneers at the beginning of the local cinema movement. It was also an inevitable feature that the Regal Cinema was a symbol that represented one of the pillars of the film exhibition in this country. Our cinema would have been completely controlled by foreigners if it had not been for the creation of the Regal Cinema. With the establishment of Regal Cinema, its luxurious and majestic appearance made it a popular and important cinema.
Regal cannot be considered a mere cinema. Until it was closed five years ago, Regal Cinema maintained its prestige. Although the popularity of Regal Cinema decreased somewhat with the construction of ultra-luxury new digital technology cinema complexes in Colombo, its prestige did not decrease. With the Colombo International Film Festival, the Regal Cinema abandoned the “Negative of films” screening that existed until then and embraced modern digital technology.
It goes without saying that instead of closing this building in the Colombo Fort, it can be developed into a historical cinema with modern restaurants that can attract tourists. The Regal, which inspired the great men who changed the history of cinema in this country and directed the glory of cinema to local cinema, is not a chapter in history at all. It is a book.
This magnificent building, which stands today, was saved from fire by a fateful incident. If that had happened, the Regal Cinema would have set a record as the first cinema in the country to be destroyed by fire. On May 23, 1950, about an hour after the show began at 6.30 pm, the film warehouse of the cinema caught fire. At that time, because film copies burned very quickly, the fire in the Regal Cinema quickly spread wide upwards. However, the fire was quickly extinguished and the cinema was saved without causing much damage. None of the Ceylon Theatres Company’s cinemas were damaged in the fires that broke out across the country in July 1983. (In July 1983, 12 cinemas were set on fire and destroyed across the country. After that, almost all the cinemas in those areas were destroyed during the North-Eastern War.)
The grandeur of the Regal Cinema and the charm of the screens and colors that reflect the pride of a royal palace are unmatched in any modern cinema.
Extracted from Aruna Gunarathna’s YouTube channel.
Aruna Gunarathna is a distinguished Sri Lankan film journalist, historian, film maker and a former Editor of “Sarasaviya” – the only Cinema newspaper in Sri Lanka.
