India, 2 May 2023: Mr. Ajay Bijli, Managing Director, PVR INOX Limited, the largest and the most premium cinema exhibitor in India and the fifth largest listed multiplex chain globally delivered the keynote address at CinemaCon 2023, the Largest Global Cinema Industry Event in Las Vegas, USA on April 24, 2023. A visionary and thought leader with over three decades of experience in the film exhibition business in India, Mr. Ajay Bijli shared key pieces of advice for exhibitors, studios, and streaming platforms globally.
Here are some highlights of his keynote address for different stakeholders in the eco-system:
Exhibitors
- Need to adapt to changing landscape and consumer behavior
- Make cinema more relevant and create new experiences – format, technology, and hospitality
- Use loyalty program and audience behavior data to provide meaningful engagements
- Use pricing strategies as a marketing tool through subscription programs, bundling of offers, and segmentation to attract customers at various price points
- Build out-of-home entertainment destinations, not just cinemas completely differentiated from watching content at home
Studios
- Create more content for the big screen
- Monetize the content journey – theatres first and then streaming
- Increase the theatrical window
Streaming
- Streaming and Cinema are here to co-exist
- Create a perfect ecosystem to make content bigger, leveraging the merits of cinemas and streaming
Big-budget films can’t make it big and would not be able to recoup their investments if they come too quickly to streaming - The probability of Piracy and theft of content is more on streaming
- Theatrical release set the quantitative and qualitative benchmarks and drive greater value for streamers
- Create a perfect eco-system attune to make content bigger leveraging the inherent strengths of theatrical and streaming
- Welcomes tech giants, Apple and Amazon’s plans to invest in making movies for cinemas
Mr. Ajay Bijli has become the First Indian Film Industry official to be invited to deliver the Keynote address in CinemaCon’s 11 year’s history. For someone who created the multiplex industry in India 25 years back, Mr. Bijli is strengthening and creating scale to the film exhibition industry. Through his critical experience of mobilizing content producers, mall developers, studios and cinema technology makers, Mr. Ajay Bijli has been able to create a conduit between consumers and film industry on one hand and the other with the retail industry and real estate development. Today multiplexes have witnessed significant growth across major Indian cities and smaller towns considering India is an under-screened market.