‘Liberty Cinema’, which had remained as a famous landmark in Chennai’s Kodambakkam locality and which is one of the oldest cinema halls in the city, has now been shut down.

The theatre, which had one of the least-priced tickets in the whole Chennai at Rs.10 and Rs.15, served for many years as the ideal ‘dream’ place to watch movie for many budding assistant directors. They could only afford tickets at a minimum price and Liberty perfectly served them.

The closure of the movie hall, which is located near Kollywood, the ‘hotbed’ of Tamil films, has come as a rude shock to many such assistant directors who had till recently been watching many films in that hall due to the low-cost tickets. Even superstar Rajinikanth, who owns a sprawling marriage hall at a few metres from the theatre, is said to be somewhat ‘upset’ that the theatre is no more at the place now.

Rajni is said to have confided to his close associates that “It was Liberty Cinema which instilled in me the hard-working psyche to make it big in Tamil films in the mid-seventies. I have watched several movies in this theatre. Many a time during that period that I had dreamt that my face should appear on the big-screen in the theatre.

“As it happened, many of my successful films had been screened in this theatre; as such, the theatre has many fond memories for me!” were the views of superstar Rajini!