Cinema halls in India have re-opened after a long hiatus of three months and just one week into re-opening, PVR has put up 4 new screens in the NCR region. PVR chairman Ajay Bijli has also said that there will be 40-50 more screens before the end of the financial year.

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While response so far has been tepid with theatres in Maharashtra still shut, the company expects footfall to return in the third and fourth quarters. Ajay Bijli spoke about the response the theatres have received in this one week, his outlook for the movie business, releases going forward and plans to put up more screens.

“Close to about 40-50 odd screens will open before the end of the financial year. The malls are still getting built, so we put our capex on hold because only when malls come up, we get our space, we will be starting fit-outs because we need to see retailers opening, we need to see F&B outlets opening. So when business comes back to normal, we will get on with our plan,” Bijli said.

On the possible third wave of COVID-19, the PVR chairman said that curtailing costs is the only way to ride that out.

“Once again we will go back to the drawing boards and try to control our costs as much as we can. The company is strong enough, its balance sheet is strong enough. We have got incredible support from investors," he said.

In the last 18 months, PVR has raised approximately Rs 300 crore through rights issue and Rs 800 crore through QIP.

"Cinemas were included in the ECLGS 4.0 We got Rs 200 crore from the government there. So we have the liquidity but we have to be extremely prudent on how we spend the money, therefore we are not spending too much,” said Bijli.

“I think that this quarter, because half of it has already gone and was shut, next quarter onwards, which is Q3 onwards, we will see footfalls back,” he added.

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)