Cinemas are seeing brisk business even as India’s economy slows to a six-year low and unemployment swells, according to PVR Ltd., the nation’s largest operator of multi-screen theatres.
Ever since the box-office hit Kabir Singh released in June, even films with small budgets or less-recognizable actors are drawing the crowds, Kamal Gianchandani, chief executive officer at PVR Pictures, said in an interview this month. Results for July-September will “definitely surprise a lot of people,” he said, declining to elaborate.
“I think the slowdown is helping the cinema business,” Gianchandani said. “There is negativity around and people want to escape it.”