Crèche, fine dining, at a multiplex near you
The next time you decide to go for a movie, you can club it with a lavish dinner at the same multiplex. And if it is an adult movie and you do not know where to leave your children, you can leave them at the crèche at the theatre, reports Serena Menon.
The next time you decide to go for a movie, you can club it with a lavish dinner at the same multiplex. And if it is an adult movie and you do not know where to leave your children, you can leave them at the crèche at the theatre.
Plagued by a sharp drop in audience, multiplexes are coming up with value-added services to draw crowds. People have stayed away from multiplexes since the prolonged producers’ strike in June and the economic slowdown.
Reliance-owned Fame Adlabs is launching a crèche where viewers coming to watch adult films can leave their children. The same group has launched the ‘Cine-diner’, a full-fledged restaurant that serves only the audience in their new nine-screen megaplex, which opened in Ghatkopar on Friday.
“We have added various other services to offer different entertainment packages that are unique and cannot be replicated at home,” said Tushar Dhingra, chief operating officer, Adlabs. “We hope this will encourage people to come back to the theatre and watch movies now that the strike is also over,”
Piracy, claim multiplexes, is one of the main reasons for a shrinking audience. “More than 90 per cent of new releases end up being illegally copied and made into DVDs which are available to all,” said Dhingra.
Owners are also trying to have an edge over their competitors. “The increase in the number of people watching movies is not great. We all are catering and vying for the same lot,” said Harshwardhan Gangurde, vice president, Inox Leisure Limited.
Other multiplexes are trying to live up to the promise of offering a total entertainment zone to moviegoers. Sterling has outsourced their ground floor to restaurants. Others like Fun Republic and INOX are adding gaming arcades for children and food courts.