We Never Stopped Innovating

There has been a revival of the cinema industry to a level that has not been witnessed until before the Covid-19 pandemic? How do you explain this phenomenon?

The nature of our business is such that if content resonates with the audiences, then people come back to the cinemas, and it is purely that. From our side, we continue to focus on what we can provide, and what we have been providing is a very safe, hygienic and great environment for people to watch movies with some great service, great F&B options and no compromise on the hygiene factors, which include your sound and projection, your seats, air conditioning. 

We aspire to give the patrons who come and spend three hours with us the best possible experience both in terms of the facilities that we provide and the service that we provide.

You have mentioned that you've focused on enhancing the cinema experience and safety. Can you highlight the innovative strategies that have encouraged people to choose cinemas over OTT for family outings?

When we were going through a lean phase, we probably had that time and mind space to still innovate. We never stopped innovating. We never stopped thinking out of the box and providing, as you said, various ways for audiences to enjoy films.

So first of all on the product side, which is actually the physical cinemas, we continue to invest in technology. We invested in new technologies. We launched a new format called ICE cinemas, where you have screens on the side panels. So it's a very immersive experience. You almost feel like you're in the film. We launched about three, four of them, and that was a big success for the audiences.

We also launched a couple of IMAX screens. Again, IMAX screens are, by definition, large. They need about 9 metres or 10 metres height, you feel immersive and it's obviously differentiated from watching OTT at home. 

4DX is another format that we have launched, where all the seats shake and you have these senses, eight or nine senses that get stimulated when you're watching a film. So that's been a big success.

The introduction of new formats is something which the industry worldwide is looking at because we need to differentiate the experience, as I said, between coming to a cinema and watching OTT at home.

We keep taking customer feedback, we keep taking feedback from the sites as well as to what is it that the customers prefer. And we have not just feedback, but we have technology and algorithms to tell us what does well and what doesn't do well. And therefore, we try to provide the best option as far as F&B is concerned.

Is it primarily Bollywood and South Indian cinema, or Hollywood that's drawing audiences consistently to theatres?

All languages have contributed to the success of cinemas. Hollywood also has contributed greatly in the months of June and July. We had films like Mission Impossible, Oppenheimer and Barbie that did very well. We've also had horror successes in Hollywood such as None, Insidious, Talk to Me. Plus in Hindi, of course.  We've already mentioned all these movies that did well. And regional films like Jailor with Rajinikanth also did very well in the month of August.

So language-wise, and of course, we had this big Marathi film that did very well in the months of June and July. So language-wise, all films have contributed to the trend of people coming back to the cinema. I think all languages, and we're very fortunate in India that we have multiple languages, have contributed. You know, if one language doesn't work, another one starts working. We as consumers and we as movie-going audiences want a variety of genres. And that's what pulls us back into cinemas.

Could you share what PVR has in store over the next two years? Any expansion plans, innovations, or developments on the horizon?

Our focus remains to grow in India. As I said, we'll end up opening about 140-odd screens this financial year and we are entering into new territories as well. 

This is a mix of cities where we are opening these 140 screens. But we are entering new markets this year as well. Markets such as Machilipatnam, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Ajmer. These are new markets where we don't have cinemas right now. 

In addition to that, I have spoken about formats and technology, be it ICE or IMAX or 4DX or luxury formats such as Insignia or Director's Cut. We are adding those also in various markets and pockets where there is a market for these. We are very careful when we add these formats because the demographics have to support it.

We are also focusing a lot on technology. We have our own app. Online sales of tickets is almost 65 per cent now, and our app is selling 10 per cent of those. And we're continuously improving our app so that the journey of buying a ticket for the customer is very smooth and it's very seamless.

Then we also have a loyalty programme. We have a good and solid loyalty member base of 80 million people with whom we are using various personalisation tools to communicate directly and really find out what it is that they want and try to deliver a very personalised experience.

We are also experimenting. We launched low F&B pricing through our promotions, which has been accepted very well by the audiences. We are also now launching PVR Passport, which is a subscription plan where you can buy 10 tickets for 700 rupees, 699 actually to be precise. And then you can watch them over a period of time. It's like a subscription programme that we're launching in October.

So there are many initiatives that we are looking at. The list is endless. And I think that is what's exciting because that's what keeps everyone charged up and excited.