“Retail is fuelling the cinema business”

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Tushar Dhingra, chief operating officer, Adlabs Cinemas, is a very busy man. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company is quickly ramping up presence in the north of India. It recently opened a five-screen cinema (capacity: 1,220 seats) at the Great India Place (GIP) in Noida (in UP) and a three-screen cinema (1,021 seats) at TDI Mall in Agra, barely two kilometers from the Taj Mahal. The company says the next six months will see the rollout of at least 13 properties and 30 screens in north India. Taking time off from the hectic touring, Dhingra spoke to Alokananda Chakraborty of The Financial Express about the cinema viewing culture in general and the initiatives of Adlabs in particular.

How has Adlabs changed as a company—in size and focus—after Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital group acquired majority stake in it?

We have greatly strengthened areas of our business especially in cinemas. From five properties and 20 screens in June 2005 we have become the largest chain in India with 42 properties and 127 screens. We have also entered new areas like domestic and international film distribution and television. Our vision is to be present across the entire film industry from film production to exhibition. A one-stop shop so to speak.

From a film-processing laboratory to interests in printing, exhi-bition, digital projection and production of films, Adlabs has covered quite a distance in the last three decades. Which one would you pinpoint as the business of the future?

It would be short-sighted to say any one business is the front-runner. The aim of Adlabs in being present in the entire spectrum of the film business is that each business should supplement the other. For example, our large network of cinemas supports the distribution business and vice versa. But certainly, the retail explosion has aided the cinema business to reach exponential growth.

As a player in the exhibition sector, what changes have you observed in technology and consumption behaviour?