PVR to open five screens at Chennai airport

The screens will be located in the multi-level car parking complex, which will open in 2021

January 22, 2020 01:15 am | Updated January 23, 2020 01:28 pm IST - CHENNAI

CHENNAI,TAMIL NADU, 12/12/2019 : A view of Domestic Chennai Airport on Thursday.Photo: B. Velankanni Raj/THEHINDU

CHENNAI,TAMIL NADU, 12/12/2019 : A view of Domestic Chennai Airport on Thursday.Photo: B. Velankanni Raj/THEHINDU

Do you have a lot of time to spend as a transit passenger? Or are you waiting endlessly to receive a passenger outside the airport as his/her flight is delayed? Soon, you can spend that time watching a film.

In a first, the Chennai airport will house five screens of PVR Cinemas, the largest multiplex chain in India.

These screens will be located in the multi-level car parking complex, which is under construction.

This facility, being built at a cost of ₹250 crore by the Olympia Group, will not only have a theatre but also a host of options for food and beverage.

“Yes, we will have five screens with roughly over 1,000 seats. This will come up in the complex which is being constructed by the Olympia Group. We are the cinema partners,” Pramod Arora, chief growth and strategy officer, PVR Limited, told The Hindu .

“This facility will be operational by the second half of 2021,” he said.

On the target audience, Mr. Arora said, “The benefit of the Chennai airport is that it is part of the city... We are looking at 80% of people from the city and 20% of the transit passengers.”

It is learnt that PVR Cinemas’ investment would be around ₹15 crore.

Hypermarket also likely

Two different sources in the Chennai real estate market said the theatre is likely to come up in the third or the fourth level of the parking lot. There are also talks for bringing in a popular hypermarket to the facility. “It would be a mix of retail and food and beverages,” one of them said.

There are 292 active screens in Chennai, with a total of 1,18,500 seats.

Officials of the Airports Authority of India said that the multi-level parking would be completed and thrown open to the public by October. “It will be constructed in such a way that it will be convenient for passengers to park their cars, shop and watch a film. The facility is coming up on either side of the Chennai Metro Rail station at a height of 27 metres,” an official said. The parking facility can accommodate 2,000 cars, he added.

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