Biswaroopa gutted in dawn blaze

kolkata: the first was deemed an accident and the second just a coincidence. but the fire that destroyed biswaroopa theatre hall in the early hours of thursday is suspected to be an act of mischief. destruction of three major theatre halls in north kolkata in less than two years is obviously too much of a coincidence. as many as 27 fire engines, officials claimed, struggled to put down the fire for well over two hours after it was reported at 1.25 am.eyewitnesses claimed the fire tenders arrived an hour after the fire was noticed and that by 4.40 am, the building was completely gutted. a shocked senior state government official said, there seems to be a pattern in these fires ravaging old theatre halls in kolkata; first it was star, then rangmahal and now biswaroopa. present lease-holder jayanti mishra, daughter of legendary theatre personality rash behari sarkar, was even more categorical. it is a clear case of sabotage by interested parties. her father had acquired a 51 year lease on the property in 1973 from a trust. she informed on thursday that the property spread over 54 cottahs of prime land and the damage caused by the fire could well exceed rs 30 lakhs. mayor subrata mukherjee also expressed his outrage and sought the chief minister's intervention and help to reconstruct the theatre. the present theatre will be converted into a 700 seater modern hall, he assured. biswaroopa, which came up in 1920, has been a witness to the glory of bengali theatre with all legends starting from sisir bhaduri to soumitra chatterjee, basanta choudhury, tripti mitra to aparna sen having performed at the theatre. this was the first hall in the city to have a revolving stage. production of the play setu remains a landmark by depicting, for the first time, a moving train on stage, thanks to the incredible use of lighting by yet another legend, tapas sen. the theatre was shut down in 1997.