A makeshift cinema hall under a 140-year-old bridge in Delhi is allowing poor rickshaw pullers and migrant labourers to escape daily hardship and sweltering heat into a world of Bollywood song, dance and romance. With the rusty iron floor of the double-decker Loha Pul (Iron Bridge) as its ceiling and some old rags acquired cheap from a nearby crematorium serving as curtains and floor mats, the cinema shows four films a day. Organisers pooled their savings to rent an old TV set and video compact disc player, and charge Rs 10 admission– a hundredth of the price of entry at Delhi’s fanciest movie theatres.
In this edition of Quint Lens, we curate a Reuters Wider Image photo feature by photographer Cathal McNoughton, which captures the easy-to-miss social entrepreneurial venture under the Loha Pul near the bank of the Yamuna in New Delhi.
He was ten years old when he came to Delhi from West Bengal.
The weighty shadow of the iron bridge, with piles of cheap cloth make for a pleasant reprieve from soaring temperatures that Delhi witnesses during the summers.
He offers meals for Rs 5-10.
On an average day, about a 100 people use the cinema hall to watch films, rest and catch up on some sleep.
You can watch a documentary made on this ingenious community endeavour by the Department of External Publicity & Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs:
(All photo and caption text are taken from Reuters’ inputs.)
Quint Lens is a selection of the most vivid imagery created by our in-house pool of talent, and from across the web, created and curated with an eye on for that Quintessential twist. In this section, you can find some of the most refreshing camera and mobile photography documenting current news events, the history and everyday culture of India and the world, heartbreaking stories that can only be conveyed through pictures, celebrations and revolutions; basically, anything that simply needs to be CliQed!
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