Largest Auditorium in India

Sri Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai is the largest auditorium in India. The hall has an interesting history. In 1943, a few music oriented minds of Mumbai such as Dr. Iyengar, Rao Saheb, Anantha Iyer, P R Sundaraja Iyengar, Srinivasa Iyer, S Seshadri and others joined hands to form a cultural organization called Krishna Gana Sabha. The Sabha used to organize regular music and dance festivals in Mumbai. In 1951, the late prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru while addressing one such gathering at Metro theatre, lamented at the lack of a large hall in Mumbai. In response to Panditji's call, a number of prominent music lovers came together and their efforts culminated in the birth of Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha in September 1952 at the Podar College Hall. In 1964 when the gigantic Shanmukhananda hall came up in Kings' Circle (Matunga), Pandit Nehru acclaimed the hall as the biggest in the east of Suez.