Coronation Cinematograph and Variety Hall was a hall in the

Girgaon Girgaon, or Girgaum, is an area in southern Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. It is near the coast. A section of Marine Drive is located here. See also *Girgaum Chowpatti *Tanks of Bombay Although the tanks have long vanished, the city of Bom ...

area of south

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

used for variety entertainment shows, dramas and to screen

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. The first full-length Indian feature film, '' Raja Harischandra'', was screened here, thus heralding the birth of the

Indian film industry The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

Location and ownership

Coronation cinema, built in 1912 was located at Narayan chawl at the junctions of Sandhurst road and Khetwadi road in the

Girgaum Girgaon, or Girgaum, is an area in southern Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. It is near the coast. A section of Marine Drive is located here. See also *Girgaum Chowpatti *Tanks of Bombay Although the tanks have long vanished, the city of Bom ...

area of

. It was one of the so-called "Sandhurst road cinemas" of the 1910-1917 Bombay cinema era, during which this area hosted a number of cinema houses including Coronation, the American-India, the Olympia and the New Alhambra. The theatre was managed by Narayan Govind Chitre, a friend of the film maker

Dadasaheb Torne Ramchandra Gopal Torne () (13 April 1890 – 19 January 1960), also known as Dadasaheb Torne was an Indian director and producer, best known for making the first feature film in India, '' Shree Pundalik''. This historic record is well establis ...

The screening of Raja Harischandra

''Further information : Raja Harischandra (Movie)'' On 3 May

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

Raja Harishchandra ''Raja Harishchandra'' () is a 1913 Indian silent film directed and produced by Dadasaheb Phalke. It is often considered the first full-length Indian feature film. ''Raja Harishchandra'' features Dattatraya Damodar Dabke, Anna Salunke, Bhal ...

(राजा हरिश्चंद्र), a silent Indian film directed and produced by

Dadasaheb Phalke Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Pronunciation: ̪ʱuɳɖiɾaːd͡ʒ pʰaːɭke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke () (30 April 1870 – 16 February 1944), was an Indian producer-director-screenwriter, known as "the Father of Indian cinema". His de ...

, was screened at Coronation cinema. The film was based on the legend of King

Harishchandra Harishchandra () is a legendary king of the Solar dynasty, who appears in several legends in texts such as the '' Aitareya Brahmana'', '' Mahabharata'', the '' Markandeya Purana'', and the '' Devi Bhagavata Purana''. The most famous of these s ...

, recounted in

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

and

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...

and was the first Indigenous Indian film.

Other screenings and purposes of Coronation Cinema

Coronation cinema was also used for other variety entertainment shows such as dances (by Miss Irene Delmar), comical sketches like "The McClements", jugglery shows by Alexandroff, other Indian movies like Pundlik (made by

) and dramas (A dead man's child).

Current status

The theatre is no longer in existence. The area housed Majestic cinema for a few decades, which was replaced by an office complex.

References

1912 establishments in India Event venues established in 1912 Hindi cinema Cinemas in Mumbai {{india-theat-struct-stub