PVR INOX’s Sanjeev Kumar Bijli on Falling Footfalls, OTT Windows and Why Ticket Prices Aren’t the Problem

PVR INOX Executive Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli doesn’t believe ticket prices are a cause of the decline in footfalls. “It’s the films; if it's a good film, then people will come,” he says—this despite several filmmakers, including Karan Johar, Kiran Rao and Hansal Mehta, being vocal about how movie-going has become prohibitively expensive.

“If you check into an expensive hotel and get great service, you don't think about the price. It’s when you get bad service that you question the value for money,” offers Bijli. Over the last two years, there has been persistent doom-and-gloom around the health of the Hindi film industry. But Bijli is surprisingly optimistic about footfalls. “The admission numbers are steadily going up. Last year it was 130 million at our cinemas alone. This year we should reach 150 million, which clearly shows an incremental increase,” he says.

The state of the box-office supports this optimism. Despite 2025 being a disappointing year for Indian cinema tentpoles—War 2, Coolie and Thamma, among them—Ormax Media reports that as of November, the cumulative box-office for 2025 is 18 per cent higher than the same period in 2024. Ormax also estimates that 2025 stands a strong chance of becoming the best-ever year at the Indian box office, a record currently held by 2023.

Last month, ahead of the box office juggernaut Dhurandhar, Bijli spoke to The Hollywood Reporter India about ticket prices, ad overload, the health of the industry, why 2025 could be the year of sleeper hits, the ongoing OTT-versus-theatrical debate and more.

Edited excerpts:

What do you make of the year so far in terms of box-office and moviegoing?

I think this has been one of the best box-office years post-COVID. We look at our exhibition business as BC and PC—before COVID and post-COVID. That period gave rise to and strengthened OTT platforms. A lot of films went straight to streaming, and the post-theatrical window shrank from eight weeks to six. It’s gone back to eight weeks, but the perception among consumers is still that films arrive on OTT within two to three weeks. That perception caused a permanent dent to the exhibition business.

This year, however, we’ve seen a strong resurgence in cinema attendance compared to last year, which was lukewarm due to the Hollywood strike. Several English-language tentpoles like Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning and Jurassic Park: Rebirth were pushed to this summer.

My sense is that it’s been a good year for films overall, but a poor year for blockbuster tentpoles. Would you agree?

Absolutely. While Coolie, War 2 and Thamma didn’t perform to expectations, The Conjuring: Last Rites did very well and crossed ₹100 crore, as did Demon Slayer. Even War 2 ended up doing ₹200–250 crore—not a small number, but lower than expected. Thamma was expected to replicate the success of Stree 2 and reach ₹500–600 crore, which it didn’t. Meanwhile, Kantara: Chapter 1 has crossed ₹600 crore.

Many big Hindi tentpoles we were counting on have also moved to next year—Love and War, YRF’s Alpha, Lahore 1947. What’s interesting this year is the return of sleeper hits, which were critical to our business pre-pandemic. Smaller films starring actors like Rajkummar Rao or Ayushmann Khurrana kept cinemas going then. Over the last few years, these films went from being called “multiplex films” to “OTT films” because they weren’t spectacle-driven. Now, they’re back to being multiplex films. It was encouraging to see Bhool Chuk Maaf perform well, as well as Gujarati film Laalo Krishna Sada Sahaayate and Malayalam film Lokah. This is what’s made the box office far more buoyant this year.

What about the window between theatrical and OTT release? Aamir Khan has spoken about how short windows discourage audiences from coming to theatres.

With Hindi films, we’re satisfied with an eight-week window. But the perception persists that it’s still only two to three weeks, partly because the first logo audiences see on the big screen is “Streaming Partner.”

For Tamil and Kannada industries, we’re in constant dialogue. Our argument is that shorter windows leave money on the table theatrically. If a film opens well, people continue coming to cinemas for weeks—often it takes two or three weeks just to make a plan. Moviegoing is a community event. From our perspective, eight weeks is the sweet spot, and we hope to find common ground.

But Tamil and Telugu films don’t always release at PVR in Mumbai?

Only the Hindi-dubbed versions don’t. If we accept those terms for Hindi, it can have repercussions across the Hindi film industry. The original-language versions do release.

In Hollywood, stars and filmmakers actively rally around theatrical releases. Do we see that camaraderie here?

They may not make public statements like Aamir did during Sitaare Zameen Par, but choosing theatrical releases and promoting films aggressively is itself a vote of confidence in theatres. That said, no one here has quite done what Tom Cruise has.

Ticket prices are the most common complaint against PVR. Is there a solution?

The national average ticket price is ₹260. We still believe cinema is an affordable form of entertainment, though some may disagree. There’s also the economic reality—rising real estate costs, electricity expenses and minimum wages. These are massive input costs, and our ticket prices remain among the lowest globally. In the US and UK, they’re $10–20.

While income levels differ, real estate costs in cities like Mumbai and Delhi are comparable to global metros. Balancing this is a challenge. That said, we’ve introduced initiatives like Cinema Lovers Day and Super Saver Tuesdays, along with bank offers like buy-one-get-one-free. We’re closely monitoring this, but we don’t believe pricing is why people stay away. It’s the films. If it’s a good film, people will come. Otherwise, you wouldn’t see a ₹600 crore Chhaava or a ₹500 crore Saiyaara.

Would a 20–30 per cent weekend price cut meaningfully increase footfalls?

No. Prices are already palatable, and massive Friday openings happen at current rates. Those openings are a result of content resonating as much as pricing.

What about the complaint about endless ads before films?

We’ve reduced them and capped ad time at around 15 minutes, split between pre-film and interval. Feedback indicated it had gotten out of hand, and we acted on that. We’re also running ad-free pilots in select metros. We’re very conscious of customer experience—irritating audiences is the last thing we want.

Filmmakers have said PVR charges them to play trailers.

That’s not happening anymore. It existed pre-COVID. We now see trailers as essential to exciting audiences. We’re limited to four trailers per show, and marketing is a joint effort. We actively promote films through our platforms, posters and standees.

If you were investing in one Indian film industry over the next two years, where would it be?

Definitely the south. It consistently delivers strong storytelling and high returns on investment. The films may be lower on glitz, but they’re rich in content—and that’s only getting better.