Regional movie releases to alter Entertainment industry

Started in 1987, Miraj Group has its presence marked in various sectors such Real Estate, FMCG, Stationary, PVC pipes & fittings, Engineering, Entertainment, Tobacco amongst others. Miraj Cinemas – the 3-year old venture of the conglomerate, is now the fifth largest multiplex player in India, credits to releases of regional movies and the growing market in smaller cities, says Amit Sharma, Managing Director of Miraj Cinemas in an interview with Retailer media.

How have you positioned your brand?

Since its inception, Miraj Cinemas is aggressively capturing markets in smaller towns/cities to create a more widespread awareness about the company following an outside inside market strategy.

The current strategy works well in-sync with the revenue generated from regional movies. Where brands like PVR, Cinepolis or Inox are considered as premium or luxury cinema brands, we are known for ‘Value for Money’ proposition. With large presence in Tier II and Tier III cities Miraj Cinema’s present ATP stands at Rs 125 - 130 per ticket, compare to ATP’s of others at over Rs 180, which we believe is a good proposition for our viewers without compromising any of multiplex facilities.

According to you, what are the latest trends in entertainment industry in terms of consumer behaviour?

At present the highest footfall done is in the range of 50 billion patrons for Bahubali, which is mere 3 per cent of our total population i.e. 1.25 million, Thus we are expecting an overwhelming opportunities in terms of numbers of movie goers increase. Additionally, the change in consumption pattern, higher disposable, growing GDP growth rate along with middle class and higher middle class group will only fuel the growth.

Besides, we have also noticed that regional movie releases are become more frequent in recent times, which we believe is a very positive trend for our industry. Presently, we have movies releasing simultaneously in total 9 different languages which includes Hindi, English, Kannada, Tamil, Telegu, Mallalyalam, Punjabi, Marathi and Bengali. Additionally acceptance for Gujrati movie market is growing among consumers.

The industry also have enough opportunity to grow as the total screen count in India is just 10 per cent percent of that of USA and our ATP ranges between 2-3 $ as compared to world-wide ratio where ATP ranges between 6-9 $.

How you plan to compete with peers and what are your strategies for that?

In our industry we all have more or less similar products with little variations over ambience and quality of services. In terms of ambience we are at par with other players and soon we have plans to provide best in class services to our viewers with personalised services which would again a value for money proposition for them.

What is your revenue model and how do you justify ROI?

Our revenue model is same as other players in the industry. Our revenue generates from Box Office, Concession Counter, Advt Sales and 3D glasses.As far as ROI is concerned, we look at ROI from each property that we launch in 4 years of time.

What is the model for ticket pricing? 

As mentioned earlier, our core strategy is to satisfy all our viewers with value for money proposition and thus we do have service offerings for everyone- from an Autowala to BMW owner.

Presently, we have six different pricing slots which are early morning, afternoon and night pricing for weekend and same thing goes for weekdays. Additionally, we also do have flat pricing days, like our highest ticket price for a weekend goes to Rs 180 each ticket; we provide same show on Thursday at Rs 60 (Thursday flat pricing offer).

Can you share the expansion plans of Miraj Cinemas?

Started in 2012, Miraj Cinemas now operates 54 screens across India and is the fifth largest multiplex player in terms of number of screens. We have plans to go upto 100 screens by next Diwali (2016), in states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,Gujarat and Bihar.

So far we have invested around Rs 70 to 80 crore for 54 screens and similar budgets will be invested for reaching 100 screens. In next 5-6 years we chalk out plans to cross over 300 screens organically.