Initially named Chitra, Mitra opened on December 20, 1930, with Srikanta. Most probably, the name came from the word chitra or chhobi (picture/film). The cinema was inaugurated by Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose had refused British security that day, forcing the management to hire local toughs who otherwise sold tickets and managed queues during football matches on the Maidan. The land belonged to Narendrakishan Mitter. BN Sircar of New Theatres wanted to build a cinema there. He ran it till 1960 when the lease got over. Narendranath's son, advocate Hemantakrishna Mitra, went to court so that the cinema could be handed over to their family. After a three-year-long legal battle, the court finally asked BN Sircar to vacate Chitra. The name of the theatre was changed to Mitra in 1963. Mitra was inaugurated on April 15, which happened to be Poila Boishakh. As a gesture, Narendrakishan decided to screen New Theatres' Doctor as the inaugural film. Despite the history of a court case, BN Sircar was also present during the inauguration. Atulya Ghosh too was present then. After taking over, Hemantakrishna decided to change the look of his cinema. The New Theatres emblem that had Jibatang Jyotiretu Chhayam written on Mitra's wall was removed. Artist Debiprasad Roychowdhury's paintings were used to decorate the interiors. Hemantakrisha died on May 9, 1986. Much before that, on July 21, 1976, son Dwipen Mitra was asked to take charge of Mitra. His elder brother, Nirendrakrishna, was a busy practising advocate before he became a judge in 1985. Dwipen too was an advocate but he didn't practice. Rather, he was interested in playing billiards and violin. The gatekeepers had initially refused entry to him because he was never seen at the theatre before. With time, Dwipen became very attached to the theatre. Old-timers remember him arriving at the hall in crisp, white dhoti-kurta at 7am and leaving only after the night show, turning off the main switch. After taking charge, Dwipen started to renovate the cinema. Initially, the sitting capacity was 947. Dwipen increased it to 1,158. Subsequently, the capacity was reduced. Much before the renaming of Chitra as Mitra perhaps sometime during the 30s, the air-conditioning system had got damaged when a small fire had broken out after an ammonium box had exploded. After Dwipen took over, he spent Rs 28 lakh to get the air-conditioning done. Slowly, he started digitization too. Dolby digital sound, UFO projection and later, 2K projection were later introduced. The screen size was increased to 40 ft by 20 ft. In 1978, Kolkata was badly affected by floods. All cinemas in north Kolkata were flooded. Mitra was the only exception. During the floods, Mitra had also recorded housefull shows. Various other stories abound about Mitra. The cinema ran films of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Uttam Kumar's Deya Neya (1963) was a top Bengali grosser. When Dwipen took over, he decided to go against the tide and regularly screen Hindi movies. That was when all the north Kolkata cinemas including Sree, Uttara, Radha, Rupabani, Darpana and Minar were concentrating on Bengali films. Only Purnasree and Khanna used to screen Hindi films then. Mitra had the advantage of a more strategic location. The craze for Shalimar (1978) was so huge that the advance booking date had to be shifted from Wednesday to Monday. Cops had to be called to manage the crowd that had queued up to buy tickets. Among popular Hindi films were Guide (1965), Phool Aur Patthar (1966), Haati Mere Saathi (1971) and Khuda Gawa (1992). Dwipen usually avoided film premieres. Mithun Chakraborty had once come for Disco Dancer (1982). The film had run for three months. To Dwipen, he would often complain about how as a youngster he wasn't allowed entry to Mitra when he had smashed his lakhir bhar and taken all the coins to buy a movie ticket. Irritated with so many coins, the booking clerk had refused him entry saying: "You will watch a film while I will count your change!" The last big Hindi release was Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). It had run for a month. When all the north Kolkata theatres started screening Hindi movies, Dwipen changed his strategy again and started screening English films too. So, Mitra screened The Mummy (1999), Hollow Man (2000) and Titanic (2010). Subsequently, he switched to screening Bengali movies. Curtains came down in April 2019, after the screening of Kesari. Poor health, next generation's disinterest in cinema business and dwindling ticket sales were cited as reasons for the closure. It was sold in December 2020 to Baazar Retail.