Going out to watch movie has to be made more experiential & ICE helps: Ajay Bijli

"Unless going out and watching a movie is made more and more experiential, it is difficult to get viewers out. ICE is just one more step and I am just very happy to be associated with the makers of ICE, CGR companies and to bring this collaboration together," says Ajay Bijli, Chairman, PVR.


ICE (Immersive Cinema Experience) will continue to get people out of their homes and not watch OTT? Is that the new mission?
I have made it a mission in my life long ago. That has been the mission pre pandemic also. Ever since cinema started, one needed to give a reason to people to come out and watch movies and that has to be big sound, big screen, enhanced projection system and of course ICE is making it more and more immersive.

So unless going out and watching a movie is made more and more experiential, it is difficult to get them out. So this is just one more step and I am just very happy to be associated with the makers of ICE, CGR companies and to bring this collaboration together.

You are doing this of course with Avatar 2, James Cameron’s sequel of the original Avatar that is coming out after 13 years. Are you expecting record box office collections?
It is looking very good. Cameron has taken 13 years to make the second film and so he is one of the most amazing directors that there is. So opening ICE with Avatar is making the experience even more complete because we need the content to be something that lends itself to enhancing the experience. That is why we were very keen and very happy with the team from ICE who worked relentlessly to make sure that we met this date of December 16.

Could the World Cup weekend hit the footfalls?
Both have got their own space; football is a 90 minute game. A 90 minute game on a Sunday night cannot affect Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Why is ICE so special? How are you going to ramp this up? And how expensive is the proposition?
ICE is special because I have not seen any technology like this where you are still watching the movie on the big screen and yet not distracted by what is happening on the side panel. The side panels are for your peripheral vision, they are only enhancing the experiences, it is more immersive and therefore the name Immersive Cinema Experience. It is very different from any other format that we have done before.

Where are you seeing it and in how many cities?
We have got four immediately planned out which are retrofits of our existing properties. It is in DLF Promenade, Ambience Mall in Delhi and Ambience Gurgaon, then one in Forum Mall Bangalore in Koramangala and one in PVR Juhu in Mumbai which is the first retro fit that we are doing. Then we have some new properties coming up in Ahmedabad, one in Bangalore in Kanakpura and one more coming up in Pune in a mall called Kopa. We are very happy with the technology, very happy with the partnership and you know we will roll them out in as many cinemas as we can.

What else can be on the anvil to make sure that cinemas continue to rule the box office?
Everybody is committed and cinema is not going anywhere. 18 months of shutdown was a body blow to everybody in the industry. But that still does not mean that you renounce an activity, which has been around for a very long time, especially in a country like India.

This volume and decibel level about people not coming out is just too much. It is humbug. It has only been nine months since we opened and the south, in any case, has gone beyond pre-pandemic levels. The north, west, east is about 60% to 70% of pre-pandemic levels. Earlier, content was not being made. Now content is getting made full-fledged so there is much commitment from the film fraternity and appetite among people to go out and watch movies. They cannot change that habit suddenly.

Also there is a lot of commitment from technology providers and ICE is a technology meant for out of home cinema entertainment. So with so much commitment and from exhibitors like us who are always trying to push the envelope and get a better experience. So with these engines working towards this one goal of getting people out, it is not going anywhere.

Other than Avatar, what are some of the big releases and which the viewers can watch with this immersive technology?
The immediate one is Circus, then we have Pathaan, which is coming on January 26. Then we have a full lineup of about 30 odd movies. The producers, studios internationally are all very happy with this technology because it does not cost them too much to convert content for the side panels. So 30-40 films a year is more than enough.

How much more expensive will the ticket price be wherever ICE is available because it differs from city to city?
About 20% more than all our formats which are different from normal screens, whether it is an IMAX, a PXL or 4DX, ICE will be about 20% more than the normal ticket price in that particular cinema.

Which was your favourite movie of 2022 and you are not allowed to say Brahmastra as your daughter played a big role there?
Okay I did not say it, you have said it.