Chaplin Cinema, Historic movie theater in Chowringhee Place, Kolkata, India.
Chaplin Cinema was a single-screen movie theater on Chowringhee Place in Kolkata, built with a mix of colonial and post-colonial architectural features. The building no longer exists, as it was demolished in 2013.
Jamshedji Framji Madan opened the venue in 1907 as Elphinstone Picture Palace, making it the city's first single-screen cinema. After decades of changing ownership, it was finally torn down in 2013 by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation following years without activity.
The cinema went through several names over its lifetime, from Elphinstone Picture Palace to Minerva and finally Chaplin. Each change of name reflected a shift in ownership and in the tastes of the audiences who shaped the city's film culture.
The cinema no longer exists and there is nothing left to visit on site. Anyone interested in its story can look for photographs and archival records in local libraries or film archives in Kolkata.
The father of Uttam Kumar, one of the most celebrated actors in Bengali cinema, worked as a projectionist in the cinema during its early years. This personal tie to a major figure in local film history is one of the lesser-told stories connected to the venue.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
