The best Hindi and Hollywood films would release here first and for decades these single screen halls were the regular haunt of the elite and the common man alike. But that was before multiplexes forced their way in. While many single screen halls have since been forced to down shutters or reinvent themselves (the latest being the legendary Liberty cinema which stopped screening films in December), some continue to survive, even flourish. Sadly, fighting against the inexorable passage of time is never easy. Sunday MiD DAY pays a pictorial tribute to a few surviving single screen halls in South Mumbai — some iconic, others not so grand but still, very much a part of the city’s cultural heritage

The Art-Deco style Eros Cinema was designed by architect Shorabji Bhedwar and opened in 1938. The red Agra sandstone twin buildings meet up in a central block