| Type | Public NSE: PVR BSE: 532689 |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment (movie theatres) |
| Founded | June 1997 |
| Headquarters |
, India Block A, 4th Floor, Building No. 9 DLF Cyber City, Phase II Gurgaon, Haryana, India |
| Number of locations | 37 |
| Key people | Ajay Bijli (Executive Chairman of the Board & Managing Director) |
| Website | www.pvrcinemas.com |
Priya Village Roadshow (PVR) Cinemas is one of the most popular and also the largest cinema chains in India. The company, which began as a joint venture agreement between Priya Exhibitors Private Limited and Village Roadshow Limited in 1995 with 60:40 ratio, began its commercial operations in June 1997 with the launch of PVR Anupam in Saket, India's first multiplex. By introducing the multiplex concept in India, PVR Cinemas[1] brought in a whole new paradigm shift to the cinema viewing experience: high class seating, state-of-the-art screens and audio-visual systems.[2]
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Story has it that the Devil Struck Twice the Bijli Family, the owners of the PVRs. In 1992, Ajay Bijli's father died at the age of 60. Then in 1994, a fire broke out in the family's trucking company's godown spread over 1,00,000 square feet. Although he lost heavily, he had a road that he could tread... that of the running the family's movie hall business.
A distributor of Hollywood films put him in touch with Village Roadshow, which wanted to expand in India. Although it was initially undertaken to renovate the Vasant Vihar hall and to convert Priya into a multiplex, but Ajay Bijli began to look for another location and zeroed in on Anupam, in South Delhi’s Saket area, which was dilapidated. Bijli took it on lease and converted it into a four-plex, sowing the seeds of the multiplex phenomenon in the country.
In 2003, Renuka Ramnath, the head of private equity fund ICICI Venture, took the final call in favour of investing Rs 40 crore in Bijli’s PVR Ltd in March 2003 when Australia’s Village Roadshow, had decided to pull out of India and 17 other countries.[3]
As of April 2010, PVR has a total of 142 screens in 33 multiplexes across India. PVR commands a significant presence in New Delhi and NCR with 37 screens in 13 multiplexes. PVR also has a strong presence in Chennai, Lucknow, Indore, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. It is expanding to other parts of the country, especially in Mumbai with openings of PVR Juhu, where there are many other established multiplex. After the tremendous success of Cinema Europa in Delhi, PVR Cinemas has introduced the concept of luxury viewing to Bangalore as well. PVR also currently operates India's largest multiplex, PVR Bangalore, which has 11 screens multiplex which includes two ultra premium cinemas known as the Gold Class and two luxurious auditoriums called Cinema Europa.[4]
PVR recently launched its premium brand, PVR Premiere, targeted at urban consumers in metros, with the opening of PVR Select Citywalk in Select Citywalk. The company operates two other brands, PVR Talkies, the no-frills cinemas for consumers in tier II cities and the original PVR Cinemas targeted at the urban & semi-urban consumers. PVR additionally plans to invest Rs 300-400 crore to open 250 screens by 2010.[5]
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