Last days of Rex: As curtains come down on Bengaluru's iconic theatre, patrons attend final shows

On 30 December 2018, I spent an afternoon photographing at Rex Theatre on Brigade Road, Bengaluru. I had seen many movies there. (I had missed photographing the Plaza Theatre before it shut down few years ago.) Rex was full of nostalgia seekers, there to see the last shows. People came up to me and talked. There was a gentleman from Seshadripuram who had been a regular at Rex since his college days, another person who had moved to Bengaluru sometime in 2000. I didn’t ask their names, it was not important. [imgcenter]

[/imgcenter] People were sad that the theatre was being pulled down. A mall with a multiplex will come up in the next 2-3 years, I was told. [imgcenter]

[/imgcenter] When I went in, the show was on. I used the time to shoot images of the interior devoid of people. [imgcenter]

[/imgcenter] When people came out during the intermission, I used long exposure lasting several seconds to give the impression of the last shows of viewers slowly vanishing. [imgcenter]

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[/imgcenter] In the ’90s, an old man used to stand here and beg, every night after the second show. It would be close to midnight when the show got over. And he would be there, clad in trousers, a jacket and a hat. He was blind and would appeal to people (for alms) in a sing-song manner in his nasal voice. I made this photograph in his memory. I neither know his name, nor where in Bengaluru he was from. I presume he lived in the cantonment area somewhere. I could see this image only in B&W, even before I photographed it. This post originally appeared on the photographer’s blog, and has been republished here with permission.