Bioscope of old Delhi.

Cinema has always been one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the city of Delhi, making them major entertainment venues. In recent years Delhi's many single-screen cinema halls have given way to large multiplexes. However some old theatres still survive in some parts of the city. The Excelsior theatre was established in 1935, earlier known as the Inayat pavilion theatre. It seats 452.



Moti theater in Old Delhi is the sole supplier of film reels in north India.

This machine has been made in the year 1940, imported form Germany. it is the 70 mm film Projector. In today's era of digital imagery , such old means still function as entertainment tools.



Suresh Chand is a film buff. He has been seeing films regularly since the last 40 years.

Token security measures are seen on the entrances to these halls. Frisking , metal detector, and checking of the bags are the measures that are employed .

At least 500 people queue outside these halls every weekend, keeping the cash registers ringing.

In spite of the badly kept interiors , the audience still throng the halls for the weekly entertainer film.

Despite the lure of cheap entertainment, these places have fallen on bad times. The halls are in a dilapidated situation , and are mostly ill maintained.


These cinema halls offer cheap entertainment for the masses. a ticket here costs between Rs 15 to 35. which is way cheaper than the swanky multiplexes.


Manny cinema halls like Moti show B-grade Bollywood and regional films. Moti cinema was established in the year 1938, its currently run by Karat Desai. Moti has had many silver and golden jubilee film runs.


Bioscope of Old Delhi. by Shariq H Naqvi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.