Recently I went to PVR Cinemas at Banjara Hills to see "Pataas". After paying Rs.150/- for executive class for the 11pm show, I felt cheated when the theatre management switched off the AC in a houseful hall packed with a movie-crazy audience. This is what PVR can do. I went with a friend from Mumbai and he was also feeling restless and said this is quite common for PVR to switch off AC especially for South Indian movies. He says they dare not do this for Hindi films, it happens only for South Indian films. South-Indian or North-Indian, I have never understood the rationale for cutting costs by switching off AC - it is the most annoying way to control your costs. It does two things - it cuts your cinema experience as a viewer by 75 per cent and then, antagonises you against the multiplex. Want proof? Ask all the cinema hall owners maintaining single-screen theatres in Hyderabad and Secunderabad - they are all abegging- waiting for the quality-conscious viewer who moved on to multiplexes. What happened to the halls which shut down? Many of them didn't have money to upgrade the single-screen theatres to multiplex because their occupancy fell, lease rentals got frozen in time and patronage from regular viewers dwindled. I remember Sangeet, Venkataramana, Sangam, Saptagiri, Deepak, Basant, Kumar - most of them used to cut corners with AC.
The last time I went to Sangeet theatre was for "Lagaan". In the film, Bhuvan was learning cricket from the English Memsahib and a cute romance was building up in the air. But my mind turned to the AC switched off. Years later, the owners of Sangeet approached me for a Rs.18 crore loan to build a multiplex in the same premises. They waited for nearly ten years before getting the funds to rebuild a world-class multiplex now. Your best source of funds and private equity is your customer - not the banker or the government. If you are the owner of the theatre, would you like your family members to sweat it out when they are watching a film in your own theatre? That experience at Sangeet hardened me; I vowed never to step inside Sangeet again. Likewise, I like to think, many would have given Sangeet a miss - reasons for an early shut down of an iconic theatre. There are still arrogant single-screen owners who treat their customers( (viewers) shabbily. They will pay a price one day. The latest example is Venkataramana and Padmavathi theatres in Kachiguda. About a decade back, I went with my family to watch "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". It had a feverish screenplay, rousing performances and mesmerising music by AR Rahman. The climax song was playing on with extra sound "Mujhe Rangggg Deeeee Eeeeee Eeee Eeeee Eeeeee" and we were about to cry. But we didn't know where the tears were coming from - my family looked at each other as we wanted to empathise with the hanging of Bhagat Singh amidst Rahman's patriotic jingle. We were sweating actually. Those were false tears but for a good cause! I vowed to teach Venkataramana theatre management a hard lesson in customer experience - they cut the AC again after interval. I collected the ticket foils and dashed off a letter to "Times of India", after it got published. I attached a photocopy of the letter and dashed off a letter to The Commissioner of Police that most theatres especially in RTC X Roads and Kachiguda were not keeping the AC on. I was told, for the nth time that AC means air-cooled not air-conditioned. I told the representative in police HQ that I was paying for continuous supply of cool air. The Commissariat promised action. I went back with hope. Lo! and behold, the ensuing weekend saw simultaneous raids in all the theatres I complained against - for errant AC supply. I felt elated and satisfied that police listens and punishes the culprits. It gave me confidence to take on issues before an RTI Act came into being. But Venkataramana theatre management went back to old ways - with adhoc car parking and wishy-washy AC. After many years, they are facing the heat of competition that will eventually wipe them out - INOX Kachiguda is grabbing segments in Sec A and Sec B audiences in the most thickly-populated and film-crazy belt in the twin cities. Occupancy is down and dwindling.
Do I need to drum up more examples of why being stingy with facets of customer experience never helped? On the other hand, look at the success examples which never took its audience for granted. They grew and retained loyalty, and with help from sound Financial Management either reinvented their models or turned profitable. Examples, Tivoli, Shanti, Sudarshan 70mm. It doesn't take long for a crappy-valued promoter like PVR Cinema to go the way of those who shut shop because of giving sub-optimal experience to their patrons. Love your patrons or be prepared to shit bricks one day, PVR.
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