The Chairman and MD of PVR, Ajay Bijli, recently spoke about the high cost of food and beverages in Indian PVR. In his recent interaction with the Economic Times, Bijli stated that the multiplex experience in India needs to be enhanced at every price point. According to the chairman, India has ample potential to grow as a country but still remains under-screened. Bijli revealed that the Food and Beverage (F&B) business is approximately worth Rs 1,500 crore at the moment.
The chairman emphasized that he doesn’t blame consumers for speaking about the high prices of F&B at any PVR. According to Bijli, Indian cinemas are still in the phase where the transition takes place from being a single screen to eventually becoming a multiplex. Since the process is in mid-way, the operation and capital expenditure running in single screen and multiplexes differ tremendously.
Further shedding light on the expenditure part of his analysis, he said that placing multi-screens in limited space, the cost of installing infrastructure, and rental of the property leased in malls are some of the major factors that increased the expenditure in multiplexes. He added, “Expenses are a function of quality. When people feel they are happy with what they are getting, then they don't complain.”
The chairman explained that multiple screens mean multiple projection rooms, multiple sound systems along with an air-conditioning foyer. This nearly results in the capital expenditure and the operational system going up. He continued, “Earlier, single screens used to have one projection room, one sound system, foyers were never air-conditioned. When multiplexes came, Capex (capital expenditure) shot up 4 to 6 times.”
In addition to this, Bijli also believes that consumers are happy with the quality that multiplexes offer. If that weren’t the case, then the F&B business wouldn’t have achieved the sales that it is doing today.
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