A hark back to ‘collection king’ Udhayam Theatre in Chennai

The Udhayam theatre Complex in Ashok Nagar at Chennai in 2009. | Photo Credit: R. Shivaji Rao For decades, until just over a year ago, Ashok Nagar was home to a theatre so beloved that it even found its way into a song: Udhayam theatre la en idhayathai tholachen… In the 1980s, ’90s, and early 2000s, Udhayam theatre was a true FDFS spot, where heartbreaks, fight sequences, and larger-than-life heroes moved audiences. Before its patronage dwindled in its later years and the theatre eventually gave way to real estate development, it stood as a landmark, an institution that had watched a city grow around it.Udhayam opened its curtains to film lovers in the summer of 1983, with the screening of Rajinikanth’s Sivappu Sooriyan. The theatre was started by six brothers from Tirunelveli, and housed