He changed the way India went to the movies, and rose to be the face of the Indian exhibition industry in a career spanning 22 years. But Ajay Bijli, chairman and managing director of PVR Ltd, dismisses all that as history, telling you that he’s as restless as ever. ?Let?s not be remembered only as people who were the first to bring multiplexes to India. It’s imperative to focus on where we are today, and where we can be tomorrow. Challenges keep changing. In 1995, the challenge was: can India really have a multiplex? Can we get permission from the government to open it? Where will it be built?there were no malls, no shopping centres and the only option was to take over a single screen cinema and convert it. Now the challenge is not to get complacent. Most entrepreneurs, just like cricketers, should be on guard and take stock after every milestone,? he says.
Just like he does after the debacle of Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se, with which his backward integration plan backfired. He owes up that it is his wake-up call, after a dream run that began with the time he took over the reins of the family-owned Priya Cinema in Delhi’s posh Vasant Vihar to India’s first multiplex in 1997 in Saket, and 142 screens mapped over 18 cities today, not to mention one of the biggest and critically acclaimed co-productions, Taare Zameen Par, under the PVR banner. His laurels are all hard-earned and perhaps that’s why he doesn’t rest on them.
And he’s brutally frank when he admits: ?I was devastated after Khelein… I had not experienced failure of that magnitude.? PVR Pictures on theory seemed like a good idea with a backward integration strategy. ?We had 20 million consumers who visited our cinemas, a consumer whose likes and dislikes you understood over a period of time. So the theory was ?let’s entertain this consumer beyond our cinemas?.? And distribution came naturally. ?Wherever we opened cinemas it was easy for us to overlay the distribution network on top of our exhibition network, so we did a lot of Hollywood films. And also Bollywood biggies such as Ghajini, Golmaal Returns, Dasvidaniya, Sarkar Raj.?
But it was a chance meeting with Aamir Khan during a premiere that drew Bijli into production. ?I told Aamir that if I ever did movie production, I would do it with you.? What followed were two mega successes?Taare Zameen Par and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. ?The experience was brilliant. We felt this was also good business to get into.? PVR Pictures attracted equity from JP Morgan and ICICI Ventures. ?We were moving along okay. We did not lose money with Aisha as it did well on the music, satellite and DVD side, but Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se really set us back,? he says, adding, ?Some of the decisions we took, budgetary and creative, did not connect with the consumer at all. Guess the writing was on the wall. Shareholders were disappointed. In retrospect, I believe whatever happens happens for the good. Setback to hota hi hai. You think main gira kyon, but then you get up and start walking again.?
Easier said than done? But not in Bijli’s case, as he outlines his plans for PVR Pictures. ?PVR will honour the earlier production commitments, just about a couple to be precise?Teen They Bhai and Shanghai. But there is no hurry to say that overnight I want to be the biggest studio in the country.?
Bijli considers the PVR production foray a blessing as well, as it imparted a bigger learning of concentrating on the core. ?There is no distraction. I am not making 20 trips to Mumbai. Exhibition itself requires my management time and the whole team has to focus on cinema again and take it to another level,? he says. ?I am nobody to say that having a diversified portfolio is not good. Look at Mukesh Ambani, the Mahindras…but then there’s a Bharti as well, which reached a huge critical mass in telecom and later did Walmart and got into the agro business, but the core remained telecom. And that?s where I am coming from. Let?s achieve an unassailable positioning in the exhibition space, do justice to the brand and to the untapped potential of the market and then look at diversification.?
PVR is looking at reaching 500 screens by 2013. ?It looks like it could happen, because that?s all that the team is doing now. This is all we know, this is all we do?breathe, eat, sleep cinema?so if are doing this only, we better do it well.?
And the man who had the first mover’s advantage by opening the first multiplex is suddenly enjoying the late entrant’s advantage too. ?It’s playing out well for us.? He cites the example of Ahmedabad. ?There were four existing multiplexes in the catchment and we opened right in the middle of competition. And with the grace of God, we got the best occupancies.?
The man has a special connect with God, (every PVR property has a small temple) and does not miss a single chance to thank him. ?God has been kind. I believe that there is somebody who helps you distinguish between what is right and wrong. I believe just as has been said in the Gita, be sincere with your work and not be too driven by the fruits. A lot of people are more hardworking than I am, but maybe they are not that fortunate; it’s good to count your blessings,? he says.
And with the production business on the slow burner, Bijli is now finding time for his other passion, music, particularly singing. ?I have been singing for a long time, but there was a large gap in the middle. But now I am very determined not to miss my classes.? He likes Hindi film songs, Jagjit Singh, Sufi music, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan… ?It’s a big stress buster and I enjoy it immensely.?
What he is also enjoying is the focus back on his exhibition business. ?I am really enjoying re-looking at designing cinemas, the consumer experiences; how we are selling popcorn and colas!? But this is for now. If something comes up with Aamir Khan again, you never know…