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. Minar was inaugurated on May 2 in 1942 with New Talkies Limited's Nari. It was a double storied structure right from the beginning. Former commissioner of Kolkata Corporation JC Mukherjee had inaugurated the cinema. The seating capacity was 850. By the time the theatre was inaugurated, World War II was already on. By May itself, the Japanese had overrun erstwhile Burma and there were talks of them approaching Kolkata. The city was blacked out from sunset to sunrise to make it tougher for bombers to hit their targets. Seven months later, on December 20, 1942, aircrafts of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force bombed Kolkata. But, Minar survived. Uttam Kumar's Ananda Ashram, Sagarika, Dewa Newa, Pathe Holo Deri and Harano Sur had run here for a year. Minar-Bijoli-Chhabighar was a reputed chain in Kolkata. All three cinemas ran the same film at the same show time simultaneously.