Safire Theatre, Chennai's cinema pioneer, now just empty ground after 20 years

A once-grand multiplex that brought 70 mm cinema to Madras and introduced continuous screenings now lies as an empty plot on Anna Salai, two decades after its demolition.

The pioneering complex that redefined moviegoing

The Safire Theatre Complex opened in 1964 as one of India's first multiplex cinema halls, owned by diamond merchant Yeshwant Veecumsee and his family. The flagship Safire screen seated approximately 1,000 people and inaugurated with a widescreen showing of Cleopatra, bringing 70 mm film technology to the city. The complex housed three screens—Safire, Blue Diamond and Emerald—each serving distinct audiences.

Blue Diamond introduced a revolutionary concept: continuous screenings that allowed patrons to enter and leave at will for ₹2.50, spending entire days watching mostly older films and second runs, The Hindu reported. The medium-sized Emerald screened Hindi and Tamil films, while Safire became the city's premier venue for English-language cinema.

A generation's gateway to Hollywood

Safire earned its reputation screening landmark English films including My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965) and Poseidon Adventure (1972)—many Chennai residents' first exposure to Hollywood. Ramesh, 65, recalled watching Poseidon Adventure with a friend: "The movie traumatised me and then came out of the theatre to pouring rain in Chennai. We were so scared and at the same time so thrilled for the experience".

For over two decades, the Safire complex defined cinema culture for Chennai residents.

Decline and abandonment

By the 1980s, the complex showed "signs of cracking" as cable television kept viewers home and crowds "dwindled to almost nothing," prompting the Veecumsee family to close the venue, according to a 2003 article by historian S. Muthiah in The Hindu Archives.

The AIADMK purchased the property in 1994, but the complex sat unused—neither demolished nor operational—for nearly a decade, collecting dust as a dilapidated shell of its former prominence. The building was finally razed in 2003. Today, the site remains a vacant lot on the congested thoroughfare.

Source: The Hindu