MUMBAI: After an incredible 1,009-week, two-decade uninterrupted run, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, or DDLJ, a Bollywood entertainer, has faded from the marquee of the iconic Maratha Mandir cinema here.
By far the longest-screened film in Indian cinema, the romance-drama ran at the cinema for 19 years. The final show was on Thursday morning, sending film buffs into nostalgia, with many of them expressing shock and regret on their social media accounts.
Until December, when the Shahrukh Khan-Kajol starrer completed 1,000 weeks at the cinema, DDLJ had been screened daily at its 11.30 a.m. slot. This year, finding it difficult to screen multiple new releases with just three regular shows, the cinema requested Yash Raj Films, the makers of DDLJ, to advance the film’s screening to 9.15 a.m.
However, the additional early-morning show made the staff work long hours. It was then “mutually decided to end the film’s historic and record-breaking run,” the cinema said.
DDLJ, which won a national and several Filmfare awards, was first screened at Maratha Mandir in October 1995. Manoj Desai, managing director of the cinema, said 210 viewers watched the last screening. The 1,107-seat cinema expects to give more screen time to new releases.
Located opposite the Mumbai Central railway station, Maratha Mandir holds an iconic position in Maximum City, stealing the limelight first by screening Mughal-e-Azam for eight years at a stretch. With DDLJ, the cinema caught international attention.
For a visitor, a drive or a walk past the railway station could never be complete without a peek at the façade of the cinema covered with DDLJ posters. It is one of the few single-screen cinemas to survive the onslaught of multiplexes.
