INOX City Centre: Potential for growth. A Telegraph picture

Three more multiplexes in three years, more events, promotions and programmes, improved services, greater customer care ? INOX?s plans for Bengal are right up there on its expansion priority list.

The reason: ?We are fairly delighted with the response from Calcutta. It is excellent in comparison to other cities,? smiled Manoj Bhatia, CEO, INOX Leisure Ltd, on Thursday morning. To keep up with the competition in Calcutta, cashing in on the ?we-were-first? factor is no longer enough, asserted the man from Mumbai, on a breeze through town.

First up is the multiplex in Darjeeling, set to open its doors next month. The INOX at Rink Mall will have three screens with 811 seats.

In 2008, two more will open their doors. The one at Diamond City, on Jessore Road, will have five screens with a seating capacity of 1,042. The Puja Complex multiplex in Kharagpur will accommodate 1,200 viewers with four screens.

With the recent rise in the number of multiplexes and the revamping of single-screen halls, the choices available to cinema-goers have increased substantially. So everyone?s competition, clarified the CEO.

?I can no longer sit back and rely on customer loyalty just because we were the first to enter the market. We have to maintain our cleanliness and customer care, and improve our services. There will be more events and promotions this year, and we are also working on a loyalty programme,? disclosed Bhatia.

While INOX Forum ranks right up there on the success charts, City Centre has more room to grow, he felt.

?It was initially just a residential area, but it is slowly becoming a commercial hub as well. Rajarhat is expanding, there are more companies starting up in Sector V, so the Salt Lake multiplex has much more potential for growth. Jessore Road will be a different ball game altogether, with a different area and target audience,? explained the 42-year-old ?Calcutta boy?.

INOX Leisure Ltd no longer creates malls around its multiplexes. Instead, it is partnering mall developers nationally because it ?suits our needs?. In fact, the chain has tied up with the Pantaloon group to provide ?preferential access? to all real estate developments involving the group.

On the content front, Calcuttans can look forward to more variety in viewing pleasure. Although the frequency and popularity of recent Bollywood releases has meant a lack of time slots for other films, that will soon change.

Regional films are on the agenda, with other language movies in Calcutta and for Tollywood films to be exhibited in INOXs around the country.

Calcutta has been losing out in terms of English films, with only one or two at a time, compared to many more in Delhi and Mumbai.

?That is because of the small number of prints that are distributed in India. So, cities where they earn more at the box-office get priority. One Hollywood film recently came to India with only four prints. In such a situation, Calcutta will get to see it about two weeks later,? Bhatia pointed out.

Time lapses make it easier for the piracy market to get out the videos, so people have already seen it by the time an English film hits the screen here. ?But more and more films are seeing a date-time release. So, hopefully, this trend will also change,? the CEO signed off.