Life is not a template and neither is mine. Like several who have worked as journalists, I am a generalist in my over two decade experience across print, global news wires and dotcom firms. But there has been one underlying theme in each phase; life gave me the chance to observe and tell a story -- from early days tracking a securities scam to terror attacks and some of India's most significant court trials. Besides writing, I have jumped fences to become an entrepreneur, as an investment advisor -- and also taught the finer aspects of business journalism to young minds. At Forbes India, I also keep an eye on some of its proprietary specials like the Rich list, GenNext and Celebrity lists. An alumnus of Xavier Institute of Communications and H.R College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, I have worked for organisations such as Agence France-Presse, Business Standard, The Financial Express and The Times of India prior to this.
Look around you. On most weekends, there are as many—if not more—people in a thriving mall as there are in a park or at the beach. “As a race, we are not outdoors people; not heavily into trekking or beaches. For us, a good evening out is an air-conditioned place to shop, eat and watch a movie,” says Alok Tandon, CEO of Inox Leisure, the entertainment arm of the Inox Group. “And this will not change.”
This cultural proclivity is one of the many reasons why the multiplex business is optimistic, despite a mixed year for Bollywood, sluggish consumer spending and project delays in the construction of new shopping malls in tier I cities. As Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, joint managing director at PVR Ltd, India’s biggest multiplex chain, puts it, “The consumption story is too strong. The spending density is low at this stage, but I expect it to come back in about six to eight months.”
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(This story appears in the 03 April, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Nice article but another big player and a game changer in the exhibition business, Carnival Cinemas is missing.
on Mar 31, 2015