By Aayan Mirza
What for more than six decades stood for Karachites as an entity of entertainment, culture and heritage, and what became one of the casualties of mob attacks in 2012 during a violent protest in the city against the controversial film Innocence of Muslims, the iconic Nishat Cinema, has finally been put on sale.
“The journey of entertaining millions at Karachi’s prominent landmark, the glorious Nishat Cinema has now come to the end,” the sale advertisement put on this Tuesday by Mandviwalla Estate read.
In an interview to Dawn, Nadeem Mandviwalla, the Managing Director of Mandviwalla Entertainment and the owner of Nishat Cinema said, We have to move on — we cannot rebuild it. There is no point in erecting a new building because what is the guarantee that it won’t happen again? M.A. Jinnah Road is a vulnerable point for cinemas and every now and then protests and rallies are held on the artery.”
He also said that he was willing to rebuild the cinema only if the assembly passes a bill and declares that particular area red zone, free from the protests, protesters and rallies that are a routine there.
While Prince, Capri and Bambino also became the target of the mob attack on that fateful day, the latter two reopened and are back in business.
“Bambino, Capri, Nishat and Prince were targeted but the damage faced by Capri and Bambino was not as severe as suffered by Prince and Nishat. It was next to impossible to revive Nishat,” Mr. Mandviwalla said.
While he agreed that Nishat’s is one of the city’s landmark buildings, he also reiterated that the sale was now inevitable.
Citizens have expressed deep sorrow on the decision and are appealing government to come to the rescue of the city’s landmark structure that has stood at its place for about 66 years.
Sorry 2 hear, an old landmark of Karachi, Nishat Cinema is being pulled down.Saw many movies there in better times Cant we protct the facade
— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) January 15, 2015
Member National Assembly from Karachi’s NA 250 and a long resident of the city expressed his grief over the news.
