As the cinema brand continues to woo its moviegoing patrons with new launches, it offers an Exclusive inside to the life and experience of luxury and extravagance. The luxury arm of the Cinema chain has introduced four of the most sort after moviegoing experiences. TheatreWorld has brought to its readers a special interview with Renaud Palliere, CEO, The Luxury Collections, PVR Cinemas as we discuss the luxury arm of the brand and its future plans.
What are PVR’s vision and expectations from the launch of the first DC in Bengaluru?
Renaud Palliere: Talking about the vision of PVR, it has been a long overdue rollout. The first Director’s Cut in Vasant Kunj is 10 years old now, so if we discount two years of Covid we were planning to rollout Director’s Cut outside its birthplace. We were already scouting for locations in South India and other parts of the country and immediately after Covid. And now we are opening Bengaluru, which we feel is one of the best possible locations. The property is amazing, it is iconic, it is a landmark, and for our first Director’s Cut property here, we felt this was the right place to be. We are absolutely excited; our expectations are high, but we are very confident that the product will be well received here.
Could you elaborate on the highlights of the property in terms of the technology and features?
Renaud Palliere: The DNA of Director’s Cut is essentially all recliner seats, it is very sophisticated in its offerings, especially the concession offerings, and they are served at your seats. The service mantra allows you to order from your seat and enjoy the food and beverages from the comfort of your first-class reclining seat. Another feature for Director’s Cut is that they all look different. The idea is to create a very bespoke, very customised experience in every new Director’s Cut that we do. Director’s Cut Bengaluru looks very different from the last one in Gurgaon. There’s some post renaissance in some minute design elements, but on a whole it’s a different vibe which also looks very different from Vasant Kunj not withstanding the edge difference between all of these properties.
Shed some light on the future plans for expanding the ICE Immersive Format in India to make moviegoing more experiential than ever.
Renaud Palliere: Initially we have four that are immediately lined up. While two of them at DLF Promenade Mall, Vasant Kunj and PVR Ambience Gurugram opened with Avatar: The Way of Water on December 16, the other two would be coming up at PVR Juhu in Mumbai and PVR Nexus Mall (formally Forum Mall) Koramangala in the coming year. The next 4 screens would be opened in new malls in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Pune. We are looking at having 20 of these screens in our portfolio across the metro cities.
What is your vision and expectation from the launch of the ICE THEATERS format in India?
Renaud Palliere: We are extremely happy that audiences have really appreciated this way of watching movies. And there was no other way than to launch it with Avatar: The Way of Water. Hence, we went out of the way to ensure that the screens were ready in time for the release of the movie. Unlike formats, the ICE experience is simpler. It offers LED panels on either side of the theatre walls to fill up a viewer’s peripheral vision. The panels do not show a continuation of the action on the main screen which is quite distracting, instead projects shapes and colours that are in line with those visuals. Since Indian movies have lot of colour in them, these movies on ICE will really make these movies immersive than ever.
Please elaborate on the USP of Director’s Cut.
Renaud Palliere: The USP is to create the ‘wow’ factor and create an element of surprise, these essentially go in hand with telling a story, it’s a narrative. We have filmmakers, actors, producers who do a great job at creating and storytelling a narrative. Director’s Cut has displayed that storytelling in the brick and mortar. Right from the moment the guests enter, its escapism, its storytelling; you have layers upon layers of decorative items that recreate the vibe and the sort of cosiness. The ‘wow’ factor when we go into the auditoriums, for the first time you have no idea what they’re going to like, traditionally, auditoriums don’t compel in your mind what you’re going to see. When you go to the ‘Grove’ or the ‘Library’ or the ‘Gallery’; all these themes are chosen to participate in this effort to create complete escapism.
PVR DC properties are known for their luxurious experiences; how does this cater to the expansion plans? What are the elements you seek?
Renaud Palliere: Like any other format, the location is important. At the end of the day, we are dealing with business, whether it is Director’s Cut or more mainstream cinema, it is all about location. The geographical location is the first step. We follow that by focusing on creating a unique product. We want guests to experience a ‘Never Seen Before’ cinema when they visit us. This quality that we are aiming for works well with the audience that we target. We want to showcase this product to as wide an audience as possible, an audience that has an appetite and an interest in sophistication, in layering, in smooth details, that connects with emotion.
What are the technology offerings in the ICE Immersive Format and what are the USPs and premium feature of this format? How does it set itself apart from other experiential formats?
Renaud Palliere: The format features exclusive ICE Theaters side panels that are placed on each side of the auditorium creating a spectacular visual atmosphere through dynamic colours and shapes. The side panels create ambient images that sync to the film, giving you a one-of-a-kind sensorial experience that’s not distracting but rather complementary to the film. ICE Theaters features one of the best 4K projectors in the industry consisting of nine primary colours and producing a brightness of 60,000 lumens. The colours and brightness create a remarkable image quality and a much brighter 3D. The sound is everything for a full movie experience. ICE Theaters technology consists of over 50 sound sources, 50 speakers and 30 amplifiers. This state-of-the art sound technology not only allows one to hear every detailed sound, it creates the ultimate sound experience. While ScreenX shows select scenes of a movie across 270 degrees unlike ICE which provides the immersive experience through the side panels throughout the duration of the movie, other key formats like 4DX stimulates all five senses with high-tech motion seats and special effects including wind, fog, lightning, bubbles, water, rain and scents. D-BOX redefines entertainment experiences with highly precise and immersive haptic technology that provides feedback to the entire body and that sparks the imagination through motion. For IMAX, movies are either shot on IMAX cameras or are digitally remastered.
Could you shed some more light on the expansion plans for Director’s Cut and the cities you are looking to venture to?
Renaud Palliere: We are certainly looking to expand to Mumbai, as well as Pune. We are looking at Hyderabad as well, it is a very urban concept. Saying this we don’t imply that we are not looking at second and third tier cities. They are also very sophisticated in their own ways, for instance in the northern part of India, cities like Chandigarh. In the south as well as there is market outside of big cities like Bangalore. The road is optimistically long.
Moviegoing habits have been changing ever since the onset of Covid. What exactly is PVR’s approach to adapt to these habits?
Renaud Palliere: Yes, it has changed naturally during Covid times. The moment cinemas opened the market launched a few extremely successful products. What has perhaps changed, is the content diversity. Cinema is a form of retail business; in retail if you want to remain relevant, you need to constantly reinvent yourself, rejuvenises the plan, re-inject new ideas into your offerings to keep the markets interested and curious. I believe PVR has always been doing this, even before Covid, perhaps now we are doing it a different pace and with a different eye.
Even with ICE Theaters, they are exclusive to PVR and even with Ōma Cinema, we are looking at putting up at least one or two of those sometime in 2023. These are headed in the direction where we contribute new and offer new things to the market. Ōma Cinema is tentatively planned to be opened in the Western region, Mumbai and also Goa. We will let you know more about the locations once the plans are in full swing. ICE as well, we are extremely optimistic about them as well. It is an experience that can’t be reproduced at home. There’s a huge opportunity continuing to offer an equally compelling entertainment products in India and beyond.
PVR is fuelling the growth of Indian cinema industry with more and more experiential formats and luxury cinema experiences such as Director’s Cut and LUXE. ICE (Immersive Cinema Experience) that we have just launched is a technology meant for an out-of-home entertainment experience. We want to give people reason to come out of their homes to watch movies with surround sound, large screens, enhanced projection system and ICE is distinct from other formats we have at present.