PESHAWAR: Peshawar’s historic Naz Cinema, a landmark in the northwestern Pakistani city, will be getting an upgrade in January next year and be converted into the province’s first 3D cineplex, the cinema’s owner said on Saturday. 
The then ‘White Rose Cinema’ was established in 1942 by a Sikh entrepreneur. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, it was bought by a grandfather of its current owner, Jawad Raza Khan. Since then, the theater, with its name changed to ‘Naz Cinema’ has been owned by Khan’s family. 
Only a handful of cinemas have survived in the province, after a wave of militancy that lasted more than a decade. A series of back-to-back bombings in February 2014 targeted two cinemas in Peshawar, killing 20 people and wounding over 50 others.
But Khan said he believed the show must go on. Over the years, he refused to shut his cinema down despite insecurity and a sharp decline in cinema-goers. Now, the movie aficionado is giving Naz the ultimate face-lift.
“For years, the idea of converting my cinema into 3D was under consideration. I myself... travel to Islamabad to watch movies in 3D there because Peshawar has no such facility. But it is time-consuming and expensive to travel all the way and return after watching a three-hour-long film,” Khan told Arab News.
A decade ago, he recalled, Peshawar had almost 27 movie theaters. Presently only seven were still open for business in the city of two million people.
But in an effort to revive the flailing movie industry in the city, Khan’s new 3D theater will have seating capacity for 450 people, with 170 seats reserved just for families. 
Cinema manager Muhammad Naeem said renovation and repair work had been expedited to launch the facility after an overwhelming response and heightened anticipation from Peshawar’s movie fans.
“This will be a combination of the latest high-tech luxury, an opera theater with digital sound system and 3D screens,” Naeem told Arab News with a hint of pride.
“There will be separate seating boxes for families to enjoy the movies in a tension-free environment,” he said.
In socially conservative Peshawar, segregation in public places like restaurants is common, with a majority of local women observing traditional ‘purdah.’ 
Noorshad Wazir, a student at the University of Peshawar and a cinema fan, welcomed the idea that people in KP would be able to enjoy a night at the movies without having to travel hours to the capital. 
“These days, university students and families hesitate to go to regular cinemas in Peshawar where you don’t have comfortable seating or good food. But the 3D cinema will attract families and bachelors,” he said.
Daily life, office responsibilities and weekend holidays had no real charm, he added, if there was no option of watching a film on the big screen at the end of the day.