MUMBAI: Citylight cinema, which was once the loved cinema hall for people around Shivaji Park Matunga and Mahim areas in Mumbai, is all set to open to the public after a seven-year hiatus in a refurbished look with the Anil Kapoor and Ajay Devgn-starrer Tezz.

The old 750-seater theatre has made way for a single screen 250-seater theatre. The new avatar of the cinema hall will have enhanced Dolby surround sound system, UFO satellite transmission, plush seating,
ample parking space and all the other frills that multiplexes offer such as a food court.

The cinema hall, which opened in 1942, used to screen classics such as Baiju Bawra and Anarkali. In the later years, filmmakers including the Barjatyas considered the theatre lucky for premiering their films.

Their blockbuster Hum Aapke Hain Kaun ran at the theatre for 33 weeks here.

In its heydays the theatre would attract cinema lovers from the entire Mahim-Matunga-Dadar area. But in the first decade of the new millennium, the cinema hall lost its patronage to the frills that multiplexes offer. The single-screen theatre finally shut down in 2005.

It was sold by Kishan Panjabi, who inherited it from his father Narayandas, to builder Shyamjibhai Gogri, who redeveloped the property. While commercial offices were set up on the ground, first, second and third floors, the fourth and fifth levels were kept for the new Citylight cinema.