Iconic Metro Cinema gets facelift to house Central's second store in city

Kolkata: Central, a popular fashion destination by Future Group, launched its second store in Kolkata on Friday.

The new store, Metro Central, is located on JawaharLal Nehru Road, Esplanade, in a building, which once housed the iconic Metro Cinema.

Metro cinema was a movie lover's favorite destination during 1940s to 1970s.

All Tollywood film stars, including Uttam Kumar, regularly visited the Metro Cinema.

The lobby on the ground floor of the theatre had photographs of Indian and Holywood stars like Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Balraj Sahani, Uttam Kumar, Pramathesh Barua, Chabi Biswas along with Clerk Gable, Gregory Peck, Audre Hepburn, Sophia Loren on the wall.

Satyajit Ray used to go to see night shows at Metro Cinema. Every Sunday morning Hollywood films were screened.

While renovating the building, special care was taken to ensure that the heritage value of the building is maintained.

The Art Deco facade with waterfall-style columns and grand staircase is one such example.

With state-of-the art décor depicting the heritage and culture of Kolkata, minimalistic fixtures and an aspiration of fashion boutique feel, the Metro Central vows to provide a never-before shopping experience to its customers right from the time they enter the store to the billing and cash counters.

CEO Central Vishnu Prasad said: "We are really excited to launch our second store in the City of Joy. Kolkata has always been special for us."

Metro Central is spread across 50,000sqft and has four floors.

Manish Agarwal, CEO of East Zone, Future Retail, said: "The re-launch of Metro cinema as Metro Central is indeed a proud moment for us. The new Central in Kolkata will offer the best of global and Indian fashion to the fashion lovers in Kolkata, amidst rich history and heritage. We are very excited to serve the customers of Kolkata in the most stylish way and giving them a new venue for the best shopping experience in Kolkata."

Central stores are large-format stores measuring between 50,000 sqft to 3,30,000 sqft. The stores offer more than 500 domestic and international brands across several categories.