We wish to provide a very high end and premium experience to our consumers: Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Cinemas
PVR Cinemas recently launched its flagship property designed to offer an unparalleled experience at Vegas Mall, Dwarka, New Delhi. At the launch of the property Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Cinemas spoke to Everything Experiential about luxury cinema experience in India, expansion in the international market and more.
Excerpts:
What are some of the key highlights of the PVR Dwarka property and what made you select this location?
We chose this location because Dwarka still does not have a single multiplex. It is one of Asia’s biggest and most densely populated townships. So technically it is a no brainer to have a multiplex in this place.
We were lucky to have a mall development here and this mall will take people by storm.
We are envisaging close to about 1.5 to 1.8 Million people coming in this PVR Cinemas alone. Hence we needed to build something which has the style, design and the size.
We felt that this location could take in a big multiplex. It is the largest in the whole of North India in terms of seat count too and has four different formats- IMAX, 4DX, Playhouse and the LUXE.
How do you intend to take forward the luxury cinema experience in India?
We believe more and more people want to upgrade. The first level of premiumization is happening through the last rows turning into recliners and we are seeing a huge amount of attraction there. They get sold faster than most of the other seats, even in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
This typically indicates that the consumer now wants to upgrade. In metros we are trying to provide an end to end experience – from booking of the ticket till the exit- we wish to provide a very high end and premium experience to our consumers.
PVR recently moved international by opening its first property in Sri-Lanka. What other international destinations are you looking at now and what are some of your future plans?
No other destination, other than Colombo was being looked at. We were contemplating movement into Middle-East, but we have decided against it.
For the first phase of our expansion, it is going to be just Colombo in the international market.
We believe that for now there is enough opportunity in India. We are planning to have a pipeline of 100 openings every year. The way we know this market, it is better to focus more energies here in India.
F&B is an important part of the entire cinematic experience. How do you make sure that PVR has something different to offer in terms of F&B?
Every day, we are completely redefining our F&B. First and foremost we are no longer a cinema company. Hence people will not eat if they do not get a great quality product.
We have our own sushi brand which is called ‘Simply Sushi’. We get our bread imported from France. We have got a walk and grill section. We have got Australian chef Sarah Todd do our menu too.
So in every aspect, we want people to come in and know that PVR has some great USP in F&B products.
Have OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix impacted traditional cinematic experience in any way?
These platforms have affected PVR but in a very positive way. According to a US study, wherever these platforms are popular, cinema has become even more popular. So it eventually wets your appetite for more content.
Trends show that the cinema watching and Netflix consumption is directly proportional. This is one brilliant opportunity because people want to consume new content. Consumers are willing to pay for stories rather than only seeing the stars.
The second big thing is that we don’t believe that we are competing with them. Simply because of the way we have changed our track from being a cinema company to being an out of home entertainment company which also show movies.
