The cinemas of india - an exceptional heritage

As single-screen cinemas disappear across India, a remarkable cultural heritage is fading away, leaving behind silent halls, abandoned projectors and the echoes of a once-vibrant popular cinema.

For nearly two decades, photographers Elisabeth Christeler and Simon Edelstein travelled throughout India in search of these disappearing movie theatres, whether abandoned or still in use. From faded façades and creaking ticket booths to spectators dozing in the heat, their work captures a cinephile India that is exuberant, intimate and profoundly human. This book offers a visual and narrative journey through more than a century of popular cinema culture, presented as a final screening before extinction.