For Kiran Shantaram, Plaza Theatre is not just a legacy left behind by his illustrious father, filmmaker V Shantaram.

“It is a metaphor for life and resilience,” says the man who ‘cried like a baby’ when a bomb ripped apart the theatre 14 years ago, killing 10 of his employees and injuring several others.

Today, Kiran claims to have made peace with the horrific memory of the blast. “For years, the mutilated bodies of the victims and the grief expressed by their families haunted me.

Some of them have been working with me since my father’s time. Their demise was a personal loss.”

He had a business meeting at Plaza at 3pm on that day — around the time the bomb went off — which was cancelled at the last minute. “God gave me a second chance so I could make a difference,” he says. 

The theatre was leased out to a private operator who did not have the same zeal as Kiran to run the place. In 2005, the V Shantaram Trust acquired the rights to run Plaza after a court battle. The theatre has now been restored and modernised.