Why India doesn’t have more IMAX screens: PVR INOX’s Sanjeev Kumar Bijli reveals each auditorium costs a WHOPPING Rs. 10-11 cr; says Hindi, Tamil and Telugu content can drive expansion
The IMAX format has a tremendous following, and certain films have done exceptional business in it. The Odyssey, for instance, has collected more than Rs. 70 crores in IMAX alone, a remarkable feat considering that India has just 34 IMAX theatres. While Mumbai has 9 IMAX screens, Delhi-NCR has 8. Meanwhile, Hyderabad still doesn’t have an IMAX auditorium, while cities like Pune and Chennai have two IMAX screens each. In comparison, the United States has more than 250 IMAX-branded screens! This naturally raises a question: why doesn’t India have more IMAX theatres, especially when the format has proved to be such a crowd-puller?
Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director, PVR INOX Ltd, spoke about it in an interview with NDTV. He said, “We have 26 IMAX screens across the country (belonging to the PVR INOX chain), which seemed very few in number when The Odyssey was coming out. But it’s a very expensive technology. At the same time, it’s something which obviously can’t be ignored. It needs to be pushed. We need to have a roll-out of IMAX screens as well. Also, in India, it’ll make more sense to invest in this technology if we end up getting a lot more Hindi content, or rather, local content. It takes around Rs. 10-11 crores per screen. It’s not cheap at all.”
Sanjeev Kumar Bijli explained, “What happens with English IMAX films is that while a film like The Odyssey worked very well, Toy Story 5 didn’t work as much as intended in the IMAX format. So, it’s like 50-50. As a result, we need more Hindi and regional filmmakers, that is, Tamil and Telugu filmmakers, to make IMAX-worthy films. If we have more content, then I think we’ll be more comfortable investing in the IMAX format.”
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