Indie films in focus

Is your focus going to be more on indie films?

Independent movies are slightly niche, but they are incredible with amazing storylines, rich in content, powerful and hard hitting, special effects are fabulous. Some of them break out winning awards. We need to champion good non-traditional film narratives too

People seem to be liking all kinds of movies. Bollywood releases from the violent Animal to entertaining Rocky aur Rani and also Gadar 2 and Pathan did well last year. What does your road map look like?

We did 15 crore admissions in the FY 2023. If a movie is made well in any genre, with good script, acting and direction, people will come for it. That is the beauty of cinema; it is difficult to predict the trends in the world of entertainment. No one genre will keep clicking.

Do good films need marketing?

You do need the trailers, promotions and star visits. In our retail interest it is important to give the audiences an immersive experience. We have to create a good environment and keep evolving our screen formats and hope for acceptance from the audience.

How do you choose your films?

Lot of feedback comes from social media and directly from people about what they want. For instance, our audiences asked for anime films. Last year, the Japanese anime movie Suzume grossed 10 crores. The Korean-English bilingual film Past Lives had an excellent run and got Oscar nominated. We have to take the small risks for our audiences.

What expansion is in the pipeline?

We will be rolling out 90 more screens across the country and majorly in Tier II and III cities such as Rourkela, Machilipatnam, Coimbatore, Kanpur. We have introduced the new ticketing price called Passport which buys four movies a month at Rs.349