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A screen crusade
Picking up a trend successfully started by PVR Cinemas, Shringar plans to refurbish old cinema halls across the country.
BY THE end of this year, major cities of India will have 1500 multiplexes and 3000 malls. And locations that are commercially doing well but with cinema halls that are in dilapidated condition will be identified. Such cinema halls will be revamped with some "internal changes" and the audience will have to pay a little extra for their tickets to enjoy that changed new ambience. Spearheading this `crusade' for a better cinema experience is Shringar Cinema, with a Thailand-based concept called Retrofit, which it announced in New Delhi this week.
Says Shravan Shroff, Managing Director, Shringar Cinema, "Since people have more disposable income even in smaller cities now, we are going to alter the movie watching experience based on our research. For instance, we observed that horror films do not work well in afternoon shows, but they do well in morning and late night shows. After research we found that during the afternoon mostly housewives watch them, and they usually don't like horror films. While in morning shows students and in the evening and night shows, young couples go to watch them. So accordingly, we will change the schedule of the film."
Already working with the Retrofit concept in three cinema halls of Nasik and Auranagabad, Shringar is applying its research to Mumbai too, where there is a huge audience for regional South Indian films, currently being exhibited in almost defunct halls. Shringar is all geared up to "look after" these halls too.
The concept of a `tax holiday, that, is less expensive tickets on weekdays and expensive tickets on weekends, will be applied in all multiplexes and other cinema halls. Besides, major Hollywood films produced in Steven Spielberg's studio will now be distributed in India through Shringar Cinema Limited. Shringar's focus lies on building more multiplexes. But what about cinema halls that run C-grade films? They seem to have no plans to take up those halls. "Local cuisine that you can relish only on the streets, you will not able to have in five-star hotels. These five-stars have their own limitations. They can't serve you galiyon ki chaat. We work on that analogy. Moreover, most such theatres are owned by old families and are disputed properties. So for the time being, we aren't considering them for refurbishment either," says Shroff.
RANA SIDDIQUI
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