Cinemas have to become experiential for consumers after pandemic: PVR's Ajay Bijli

After Maharashtra issued guidelines to allow the reopening of cinema halls, drama theatres and auditoriums from October 22, leading multiplex chain operator PVR Ltd on Wednesday said cinemas have to become experiential for consumers after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Ajay Bijli, chairman, said, "There are two engines that make this business of cinema work - one is a consumer and the other is film fraternity."

Bijli said, "I will make it experiential anyway but at the same time, human nature itself is not designed to be incarcerated at home. So we have noticed that both things are happening, we are making it exponential anyway to remind people of what they missed out on. On the other hand, they are also having a huge appetite to go out and just behave as normal humans do. The appetite is just phenomenal, it is insatiable."

: As Maharashtra theatres reopen in October, these 10 big movies are set to release soon

"Whatever little movies we have released so far, primarily Hollywood films and Punjabi films, down south a lot of Tamil, Malayalam, Canada, and Telugu movies have got released and whatever preview we have got of people coming out has been phenomenal," he said.

From the film fraternity side, Bijli said, "70 percent of revenue still comes from theatrical. So the monetisation journey of any content is first theatrical and then it goes to various other platforms, whether it is OTT platforms, or satellite, TV, airlines, etc. So that had taken a big break when cinemas were closed down. But now the cinemas are open, that monetisation journey will once again start."

"I am pretty confident both the film fraternity and the consumers -- the two engines that made this exhibition industry sustain for decades, centuries will again make it revive," stated Bijli.

Also Read: Theatres may have reopened, but online content is still a winner

On expansion plans, he said, "Last two years, theatres were shut. So we were in survival mode. When you are in survival mode, you think about how to curtail and make sure your company stays afloat. So, our focus was raising funds, shoring up liquidity and controlling our costs. Even malls were not getting built and construction activity had stopped all over the country. Now, malls are back and we have almost about 100 odd screens under fit-out in various parts of the country."

"Overall, the country is still very under-screened. We only have 5,000-6,000 screens now, as opposed to 40,000 in the US, 70,000 in China. So, the growth trajectory is something which will come back very shortly," said Bijli sounding optimistic.