It ran to packed house for days when Jackie Shroff's Hero released in 1983. Almost 36 years since then, it will open its auditorium for the final time today to screen Tiger Shroff's Student Of The Year 2. After an uninterrupted run for nearly seven decades, it will be curtains down for the 550-seat Chitra Cinema today.

Third generation owner and current proprietor Dara Mehta, who took over the business in 1982 from father PD Mehta, cites poor business as the primary reason for the shutdown. "Single screens are hardly doing any business today. While weekends would witness good footfalls, we would hardly have any patrons on weekdays. We haven't yet decided whether it will be given for redevelopment or let out to a multiplex chain." It is difficult to imagine the parking lot, that wears an empty look these days, teeming with people in October 1961, each hoping to get a ticket to Shammi Kapoor's Junglee, which had released then.