Comments
As the multiplex industry is coming out of one of the toughest years for the industry due to the pandemic, leading multiplex chain PVR Ltd is hoping to get back on track with its expansion plans.
Pramod Arora, Chief Growth & Strategy Officer, PVR Ltd, said, “We believe the content line-up from April is going to be very strong and we would like to strengthen our presence across the country. We are geared towards adding 80-85 screens in FY22. Of course a lot will depend on the progress made by our development partners but we are hopeful of hitting that number.”
The company said about 30 screens are ready to be rolled out. Some of the new cities the company expects to enter in the coming months include Thiruvananthapuram, Nizamabad, Patna, Patiala, Dhanbad, Jamnagar, Ajmer, Bhubaneswar, and Rourkela.
With the addition of nine screens in Kanpur and Mysuru this week, PVR now operates 844 screens at 177 properties in 71 cities in India as well as in Sri Lanka. The multiplex player has been eyeing the 1,000 screen-mark and plans to achieve this goal in FY21 were delayed due to the pandemic.
“Some of the projects in the pipeline were already at 80-85 per cent levels of delivery and now they are getting completed. Our development partners have backed us strongly during the pandemic. We are moving towards a model which focusses on higher revenue share and lower minimum guarantees and that works well for both PVR and its development partners,” Arora added.
In January, PVR had said it had successfully negotiated for complete or partial waiver and discounts with landlords for 88 per cent of its cinemas. This aided the cinema chain in significant reduction in rental and CAM expenses in the current fiscal.
With many States now allowing cinemas to operate at 100 per cent, the multiplex industry is betting big on pent-up demand as producers are gradually beginning to look at releasing movies at the box office.
“With the vaccination drive going in the right direction and efforts to flatten the curve, we hope to see strong pent-up demand in the coming months backed by a strong line-up of movies,” he added.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.