In the late 1930s, Haripriya Paul used to run a photography business from a shop called Bengal Photographers on Lindsay Street. Unfortunately, that didn't do well and he took to organising open-air cinemas and tent shows. He first inaugurated Chhabighar in 1931. The next step was to build Bijoli in 1935. Named after his third daughter Bijoli, Haripriya established the cinema in 1935 with a seating capacity of 900. Minar-Bijoli-Chhabighar was a reputed chain in Kolkata. All three cinemas ran the same film at the same show time simultaneously. Air conditioning was introduced in the 60s. Initially, projectors imported from Europe would be used to screen films there. Bijoli has three lobbies, two of which were on the ground floor. There used to be a front stall, a middle stall and a rear stall on the ground floor. On the first floor, there used to be a dress circle for families and balcony seats. It was at Bijoli where Satyajit Ray had organised special shows of Piku and Sadgati. Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne had run for 60 weeks at Bijoli. Many of Mrinal Sen's films were screened there. Ritwik Ghatak's last film - Jukti Tokko Aar Goppo was also released there in 1974. Rituparno Ghosh had released Unishe April at Bijoli. Premiere of Tarun Mazumdar's Alo too was held there. Many of Shakti Samanta's films, including the Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore-starrer Ananda Ashram, had a premiere at Bijoli. It ran for 75 weeks at Bijoli. Currently, the theatre has 188 seats in the balcony and 614 in the rear stall. In 2019, the Oscar jury for choosing the Indian entry that was chaired by Aparna Sen had held their meeting at Bijoli too.