North America's first cinema dedicated to South Asian films
Little India, Gerrard Street
In 1972, one businessman bought a struggling theatre and started screening Bollywood films exclusively — and the commercial spillover became one of the largest South Asian marketplaces in North America.
.jpg)
Advertisement
The neighbourhood's founding moment is well documented: in 1972, businessman Gian Naaz rented, and later purchased, the Eastwood Theatre on Gerrard Street East, renaming it the Naaz Theatre. It is widely credited as the first cinema in North America to screen South Asian films exclusively. The theatre drew South Asian moviegoers from across the Greater Toronto Area, and the commercial spillover — restaurants, sari and jewellery shops, record stores — grew into what's now known as the Gerrard India Bazaar.
A commercial hub, not a residential one
Unlike some of Toronto's other ethnic neighbourhoods, the Gerrard India Bazaar has historically served as a commercial and cultural hub rather than a residential concentration — South Asian Torontonians travel to it from across the region rather than living around it in large numbers. Today it comprises over 100 Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan businesses, consistently described as the largest South Asian marketplace in North America.
Advertisement
Sources
Continue reading
New Toronto
Founded around 1890 as a planned industrial town on Lake Ontario, New Toronto stayed an independent…
The Family Compact
A tightly interconnected group of officials, judges and merchants known as the Family Compact controlled…
Canadian Stage
Formed from the 1988 merger of Toronto Free Theatre and CentreStage, Canadian Stage is best known for its…
Ethiopian Toronto
Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees fleeing a 1970s revolution, subsequent famine and decades of conflict built a…