Luxury-format cinemas: Where tickets cost an arm, and popcorn, a leg
PVR Inox, India’s biggest multiplex chain, which now operates Eros. The Eros building, commissioned in 1935 by Parsi businessman Shiavax Cawasji Cambata, hasn’t lost its vintage vibe on the outside and still retains much of its Victorian Gothic and Art Deco style architecture.
But some parts of the interior, including the lobby and the gigantic auditorium, have been remodelled and converted to accommodate the immersive Canadian screen format, which is rapidly gaining ground across the country thanks to multiplex operators such as PVR Inox, which are looking to up the premium game for aspirational Indians. Reopened as Eros IMAX in February 2024 after the original Eros Cinema closed in 2017, the theatre is the third standalone—in a single-screen cinema as opposed to a multiplex—IMAX in the country.
The other two, Priya Cinema and Paras Cinema in Delhi, have come up over the past year after PVR Inox decided to cater to the affluent, metro demographic. With 305 seats, Eros is the go-to destination for the upmarket, elite clientele from nearby areas such as Cuffe Parade, Colaba and Marine Drive.
Similarly, Priya Cinema is located in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar, home to people affluent enough to pay for an IMAX show and a luxury experience while watching a movie. In theatres like these, a ticket can set you back by at least ₹500-700 and as much as ₹2,500, depending on the film; food and beverages will add substantially to that bill.
Over 20 kilometres away from Churchgate, in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), a similar upmarket crowd saunters in for shows of Furiosa, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Rockstar (the 2011 Ranbir Kapoor film has been re-released as there are few new films on offer). Nestled between stores of international brands such as
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