Patna: The city's Regent Theatre has been selected as the "Best Single Screen, National" by Indywood Film Carnival for the Indywood Excellence Awards 2017. The award ceremony will be held in Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, from December 1 to 4, 2017.

"It is a great honour for me and my theatre," said Regent owner Suman Kumar Sinha.

It is Bihar's first theatrewhich started its journey in 1929 as Palace of Varieties, a place that screened silent movies and staged multi-cultural shows. The name was changed to Regent Theatre in 1948.

Now, it is known as Regent Fun Cinemas after the brand Fun Cinemas entered the state in 2013. "Regent was the first theatre in India to start mult-ile booking counters. We were the first in India to introduce combo (tickets + snacks), and 'Service on Seat'. We installed the first Dolby sound system in Bihar in 1995. We introduced Internet booking in 2006 and we brought the magic of 3D cinema," he said.

Regent brought CCD and KFC to Bihar in 2011 and 2012, respectively, apart from the first theatre that gave girls an opportunity to work with theatre. In 2010, Regent made a mark on the national scene by being the only single-screen theatre (and that too at 2nd place) on the list of top 100 theatres (as per collections) for Salman Khan's Bodyguard.

"Our theatre has a long journey from creating a special lounge for films like Aladdin, Lion King and Jurassic Park, to changing the look of the theatre to match that of a wedding for the release of Vivaah," Sinha said. Even the first Indian sound film Alam-Ara was also screened here.

The seating capacity of the theatre is 655. Even classics like Haathi Mere Saathi, Mughal-e-Azam, Devdas, Madhumati and Do Bigha Zamin were screened.

Sinha said: "I have been called on December 2, 2017, to receive the award apart from taking part in the panel discussion titled 'Customization of Content for Different Exhibition Formats'."