PVR INOX Ltd (formerly Priya Village Roadshow Ltd), formerly known as PVR Cinemas,is an Indian

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: * Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make * Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain * Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company * Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measu ...

chain based in Gurgaon. It was formed as a result of the merger between PVR Cinemas and INOX Movies. PVR pioneered the multiplex revolution in India by establishing the first

multiplex cinema A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into s ...

in 1997 at Saket,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

. In 2022, PVR Cinemas achieved the milestone of completing 25 years in the business.

History

PVR Cinemas has its origin as Priya Cinema in

Vasant Vihar Vasant Vihar is a diplomatic and residential sub-division of the South West Delhi in National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. It is located near the diplomatic area of Chanakyapuri, and houses over 50 diplomatic missions of foreign countries, ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, the Cinema was named after Priya Jaisinghani and was bought by Ajay Bijli's father in 1978, who also owned a trucking business, Amritsar Transport Co. In 1988, Bijli took over the running of the cinema hall, which was revamped in 1990, and its success led to the founding PVR Cinemas. The company started as a joint venture agreement between Priya Exhibitors Private Limited and

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow Limited is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...

Limited in 1995 with 60:40 ratio. It began its commercial operations in June 1997. The company was founded by

Ajay Bijli Ajay Bijli is chairman of PVR Ltd and the owner of PVR Cinemas chain in India. Since 2013 Bijli has been a managing director for CineMAX India and a director for iPic Entertainment Inc. Early life and education Bijli completed his BCom from Hin ...

who is the chairman and managing director of PVR Cinemas. Ajay Bijli's brother Sanjeev Kumar Bijli is the Joint Managing Director of PVR Ltd. The company also operates a pro-active CSR wing under PVR. In 2003, ICICI Ventures invested 40 crore in PVR when Village Roadshow decided to pull out of the partnership.The first PVR Gold Screen was introduced in Forum Mall, Bengaluru.

Mergers and acquisitions

CineMAX

Cinemax, also known as Cinemax India Ltd, was an Indian cinema chain which owned 138 screens across 39 properties in India, including Ahmedabad,

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, Kanpur,

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

and

Nashik Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashi ...

. It was previously owned by the Kanakia group but later bought by Cine Hospitality Private Ltd, a subsidiary of PVR Cinemas. The acquired properties were renamed as PVR Cinemas in a phased manner over the years.

DT Cinemas

In May 2016, DLF group owned DT Cinemas was bought by PVR Cinemas for .

SPI Cinemas

SPI Cinemas, a premium multiplex chain based in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

had its origins in the "Royal Theatre Complex" built by Raja from

Venkatagiri Venkatagiri is a town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and mandals headquarters of Venkatagiri mandal. Venkatagiri's old name is "Kali Mili". It is famous for its Handloom Cotton Sarees. Venkatagi ...

in April 1974 and acquired by the Reddy family in the 1980s. Kiran Reddy, the then CEO of SPI Group took over the business in 1999 and continued developing the theatre, adding three more screens and refurbishing the existing three. The company was often lauded for its premium quality and inexpensive pricing. The group was notable for being the first multiplex operator in India to equip its screens with the

Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal, nor verti ...

and

Auro 11.1 Auro 11.1 is one of the cinematic speaker layouts of the Auro-3D format, invented in 2005 by Wilfried Van Baelen (CEO Auro Technologies, CEO Galaxy Studios). The Auro 11.1 cinema audio format is supported by Barco, a global visualization technol ...

sound systems. In August 2018, PVR Cinemas announced their acquisition of SPI Cinemas for ₹850 crore in a cash and stock deal. In August 2019, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) New Delhi-branch approved the amalgamation of SPI Cinemas into PVR Cinemas with effect from the appointed date of 17 August 2018, PVR said in the exchange filing.

INOX Leisure Limited

On 12 Jan 2023, the Mumbai bench of the

National Company Law Tribunal The National Company Law Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates issues relating to Indian companies. The tribunal was established under the Companies Act 2013 and was constituted on 1 June 2016 by the government of India ...

(NCLT) approved the merger of PVR and INOX. In February 2023, PVR merged with its rival INOX Leisure to create largest multiplex chain in India. All the new properties opened after the merger with Inox will be branded as 'PVR Inox'. The existing properties owned by PVR and Inox prior to merger will continue to carry 'PVR' and 'Inox' branding respectively.Post-Merger PVR was renamed PVR INOX Ltd., and it is fifth largest listed multiplex chain globally by screen count. PVR currently is in process of creating a unified rewards system in place of PVR Privilege and Inox Rewards that will be used across both PVR and Inox properties. A unified booking portal and app will also be launched soon in place of PVR and Inox websites and apps. The merged entity has plans to open 150+ screens every year and enter Tier 3, Tier 4 cities in India to provide ultimate movie viewing experience which currently is mostly restricted to Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.

Luxe Cinemas

Luxe, a premium multiplex with 11 screens operating at Phoenix MarketCity Mall, Chennai owned by Jazz Cinemas was acquired by INOX in October 2022 which in turn merged with PVR in 2023.

PVR Inox Pictures

PVR INOX pictures is the movie distribution arm of PVR Inox Ltd. It was earlier named as PVR Pictures but post the merger with Inox leisure, it was rebranded as PVR INOX Pictures.

Collaborations

In October 2021, PVR announced their collaboration with the film ''RRR'' as part of the film's promotion. Accordingly, PVR would rebrand itself as PVRRR across the multiplex chain's 170+ properties in over 70 cities for a few months following the film's release on 25 March 2022. As part of the promotions, they also launched an exclusive NFT (non-fungible token) collection for the film. About 300 digital collectibles including posters signed by director

S. S. Rajamouli Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli ( ; born 10 October 1973) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He is the highest paid director in India, and is known for his action, fantasy, and epic genre films. T ...

and the lead cast including

Ram Charan Konidela Ram Charan Teja (born 27 March 1985) is an Indian actor, producer, and entrepreneur who works predominantly in Telugu films. One of the highest-paid Telugu film actors, he is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards and two Nandi Awa ...

N. T. Rama Rao Jr. Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr. (born 20 May 1983), also known as Jr. N.T.R. or Tarak, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Telugu cinema. One of the highest paid Telugu film actors, Rama Rao Jr. has won several accolades, including two Fil ...

and

Alia Bhatt Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is a British actress of Indian descent who predominantly works in Hindi films. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Alia Bhatt, several accolades including four Filmfare Awards. One of I ...

and props used in the film were made available to fans as memorabilia. Kotak Mahindra Bank and PVR Cinemas partnered to introduce India's first co-branded movie debit card in November 2021. In June 2022, PVR announced a collaboration with French high-end theatre company, Ice Theatres, part of CGR Theatres, to open new premium theatres in India. PVR partnered with Maruti Suzuki to launch an innovative 270-degree in-cinema advertising experience utilizing 3D Projection Mapping on theater side walls. PVR also expanded its preferred partnership agreement with laser cinema solutions provider Cinionic to power all of its screens with Barco Series 4 4K laser projection. On completion of this roll-out, PVR would become the first exhibition chain in India to go 100 per cent 4K RGB laser projection. In 2022, PVR Cinemas entered into an exclusive partnership with Visa, the official payments technology partner of FIFA for organizing ‘FIFA World Cup 2022TM Viewing Parties’ across 11 properties in 8 cities. In 2023, PVR hosted the Oscars Film Festival where it screened some of the most popular movies nominated for the

94th Academy Awards The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The awards were scheduled after its usual late February dat ...

. PVR INOX also partnered with INGKA Centers, part of IKEA's retail operator

INGKA Holding INGKA Holding B.V. is a holding company based in Leiden, Netherlands. It is the holding company that controls 367 stores of the 422 of IKEA in 2018. The company is fully owned by the Stichting INGKA Foundation. Relationship with other IKEA comp ...

for its upcoming Gurgaon center to open a nine-screen movie theatre. PVR INOX has partnered with

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

actor and climate activist

Bhumi Pednekar Bhumi Pednekar (born 18 July 1989) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. After working as an assistant casting director at Yash Raj Films for six years, she made her film debut as an overweight bride in the company's romantic come ...

to spread awareness on

Climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

Formats

PVR Gold Screen

PVR's first "Gold Screen" was launched in

Indore Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

in 2007.

PVR Superplex

In 2014, PVR Cinemas introduced Superplex format in

Noida Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...

. The cinema has 15 screens with IMAX,

4DX 4DX is a 4D film format developed by CJ 4DPlex, a subsidiary of South Korean cinema chain CJ CGV. It allows films to be augmented with various practical effects, including motion-seats, wind, strobe-lights, simulated-snow, and scents. First i ...

, Gold Class, a playhouse and mainstream auditoriums. PVR Cinemas has invested ₹48 crores in this new venture. PVR also joined hands with friends group and business venture was called FRIENDS CINEMA

IMAX (with Laser)

IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio and steep stadium seating. It produces an image approximately ten times larger than that from standard 35 mm film.

PVR Playhouse

PVR Playhouse includes a special movie auditorium showcasing children's movies/animated content. Along with a slide to play on, it offers bean bags and rubberised seats for kids and parents. This format is available only in Bengaluru,

, Delhi,

and

PVR 4DX

In 2016, PVR's 4DX became the second movie theater chain in India to introduce

in the country after

Cinépolis Cinépolis is a Mexican and international movie theater chain. Its name means ''City of Cinema'' and its slogan is ''La Capital del Cine'' ( en, the Capital of Cinema). Cinépolis was the biggest cineplex chain in Mexico, with 427 theaters in ...

PVR ICE

In 2022, PVR Cinemas introduced the first ICE Theatres format in

Delhi NCR The National Capital Region (NCR) is a planning region centred upon the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi in India. It encompasses Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The N ...

. This was the first ICE in India and Asia Pacific Region.

P L

PXL Screen is a theatre design or technology introduced by PVR that aims to transform the movie-going experience. It is watching a movie in PVR with an extra-large Lexperience in form of improved seating, audio-visual quality and screen size.

Gallery

File:pvr saket.jpg, PVR Saket, New Delhi (December 2005) File:PVR Cinemas.jpg, PVR Vikas Puri, New Delhi (November 2007) File:Phoenix Marketcity (Mumbai) - PVR Cinemas.jpg, PVR Phoenix Marketcity, Mumbai (October 2010) File:The Acropolis Mall.JPG, PVR Acropolis, Ahmedabad (January 2012) File:PVR Latur.jpg, PVR Latur (October 2009) File:PVR Vega city mall, Bengaluru .jpg, PVR Vega City Mall, Bengaluru (July 2018) File:PVR Ranchi.jpg, PVR Nucleus Mall, Ranchi (May 2022) File:PVR Cinemas,Sattva Divinity Global Mall,Bengaluru.jpg, PVR Sattva Divinity Global Mall, Bengaluru (June 2023) File:PVR Forum Falcon City,Bengaluru.jpg, PVR Forum Falcon City, Bengaluru(July 2023)

References

{{Nifty 200 companies Cinema chains in India Companies based in Gurgaon Entertainment companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in Haryana Warburg Pincus companies Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange