DDLJ matinee show cancelled at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir for the first time in 22 years. Here’s why

Mumbai’s iconic Maratha Mandir — which has been running the movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) for the past two decades — had another first, but not the kind that would make Shah Rukh Khan fans happy. For the first time in 22 years, the film’s matinee show was cancelled for the trailer screening of Shraddha Kapoor-starrer Haseena Parkar on Tuesday. The film is a biopic on gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s sister, who is also known as ‘Queen of Mumbai’.

Manoj Desai, executive director of Maratha Mandir Cinema, said the makers of the film thought of launching the trailer there as Parkar lived in Dongri, which is very close to Maratha Mandir.

Desai, however, insists no injustice has been done to DDLJ. “The film-makers approached me with the idea and said they would pay equivalent to a houseful show. I ran the idea past Yash Raj Films (producers of DDLJ), who agreed and that is how this was planned.” The tickets for the matinee show cost between Rs15-20 and the theatre is mostly full, especially on weekends.

A board outside the theatre on Monday informed DDLJ fans that the show had been cancelled. This was also the first time Maratha Mandir, inaugurated in late 1950s, was the venue for a movie trailer launch.

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