PVR banking heavily on 'Pathaan', other Bollywood releases; says 75-80% pre-pandemic footfalls are back

Following a string of big-budget Bollywood releases like Laal Singh Chaddha, Cirkus, Ram Setu, Vikram Vedha, Bhediya that didn’t manage to get the audiences back to the theatres, India’s largest multiplex chain PVR is of the opinion that it’s content and not a pricing issue. “The problem is not as big as its being made out to be, 75-80 per cent of our footfalls are back from the pre-pandemic level. This is definitely a content issue. We sold Avatar at an average ticket price of Rs 300 and it is one of the biggest box office successes in the country,” Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint Managing Director, PVR said told Business Today. 

Bijli is heavily banking on upcoming Bollywood releases like Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan, which is releasing on January 25, Kartik Aaryan’s Shahzada, that’s hitting the big screen in early February, and Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, that’s releasing in early March this year. “These Bollywwod titles look promising. Then there are big Hollywood names like Ant Man, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, 65, etc. that we’re banking on,” he said. “While the footfalls are back, we want them to be back by 100 per cent and more.”

Last year on March 27, PVR and Inox Leisure announced their merger. The company expects the remaining formalities to be over by the end of this fiscal. Post-merger, it would have a total of 1,600 screens. The multiplex operator aims to operate 1,000 screens by the end of FY24 and on Monday achieved the milestone of 900 screens. “We’re on track with the expansion process. We make sure unserviced areas get a multiplex. The idea is to open in markets where we're not present and in markets where we're present and there's still a potential to grow,” he said.

The company is focusing on smaller towns and cities for expansion. “We just opened 8 screens in Jaipur and in last 25 years we didn’t have a complex there. This year itself we've opened in small places like Patiala which is doing very well. We're looking at Vasai which is an unserviced suburb, Hubli, Jamnagar, Bikaner, Ajmer, etc. as these places dont have a multiplex and have very limited options in entertainment in general,” Bijli said.

He added that for every consumer facing business it's important to be in smaller towns and cities. “We get an estimate of 20-30 per cent growth from smaller towns and there’s a lot of potential coming from big South India cities like Chennai and Bengaluru because the movie going index there is so high,” he said.

Bijli does acknowledge that the consumer taste has evolved. “Whether or not the consumer taste has changed or not, it is something that we can’t really prove. There's a lot of content out there on OTT and certainly the consumers have evolved a lot more, they're consuming a lot better content—be it at the cinemas or OTT because e they're exposed to such great quality content,” he said.

But, he adds, different kinds of content coming in the theatres will keep them afloat. “Last year you had Brahmastra which was a mythological VFX-laden film, Bhool Bhulaiya also did well which is a horror comedy and then there’s Drishyam 2 which is just great storytelling. We still don’t know yet what works and what doesn’t. We play all content and hope that they all do well,” he added.

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Also read: It will take 2-3 more quarters for footfalls at multiplexes to return to pre-Covid level: PVR