It's curtains for Chennai's iconic Agastya theatre

CHENNAI: After entertaining film lovers for over five decades, the iconic Agastya theatre in Tondaiyarpet was demolished for widening roads.

The popular cinema hall began its business from 1967, making its debut with K Balachander's comedy hit 'Bama Vijayam'. The ticket was sold at 8 paise back then.

Agastya holds the illustrious record of screening films of four generations's stars.

The screen started losing craze after mushrooming of multiplexes and malls, the space of the cinema theatre shrank after a part of its land was used for Metro rail project in 2015.

It went out of business two years ago owing the Covid pandemic. Unable to match with its competitors and succumbing to the city's development, Agastya chose to call it quits in 2020.

The cinema hall will be remembered for entertaining the masses with a nominal ticket price. The tickets last sold was priced at just Rs 30.