India’s largest multiplex operator is contending with screen closures and unremarkable performance. Nothing that Ajay Bijli cannot fix, but there will be short-term pain.
The merger last year between PVR and INOX, India’s top multiplex chains, was supposed to be Ajay Bijli’s final act in a career that has pretty much defined the country’s movie-viewing experience. At 57 years old, the managing director of PVR INOX is a standout entrepreneur who has transformed his family-run, single-screen cinema hall (Priya Cinemas) into a multiplex behemoth. At a point in time, his quest for size made sense.
“Either you are an extremely small player, running one cinema, or you have a scale like 1,500 screens to make money,” says Sumant Bhargava, former managing director of Stargaze …
Neethi covers healthcare and consumer retail at The Morning Context. Previously, she worked at Moneycontrol, where she wrote about pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
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