Essel's Fun plans halls in East

Fun Cinemas, the Essel Group-managed multiplex chain, will foray into eastern India this year.

It has signed on two properties in Kolkata, in Axis Mall and Lake Mall. Each property will be a 5-screen, 1200-seater multiplex, and entail an investment of close to Rs 7 crore for each.

The company also plans to bring its value chain - Talkie Town - to places like Durgapur, Howrah, and Asansol in the next one year.

Speaking to Business Standard, Vishal Kapur, COO of Fun Multiplex Pvt Ltd, said, “We are looking at opening close to 40 screens over the next three years in eastern India. We will bring both our brands in east, Fun Cinemas and Talkie Town.”

While Fun Cinemas is positioned as a lifestyle brand, Talkie Town is its value brand, with ticket prices at Talkie Town 50 per cent cheaper than Fun Cinemas.

“We will invest Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 crore per property,” informed Kapur.

Talkie Town will look at acquiring some of the standalone dilapidated theatres and rebrand them into either a 4-screen plex or a standalone theatre.

Currently the company has 10 Talkie Town in the country which are all revamped models of dilapidated standalone theatres.

“We are looking at standalone properties in Kolkata for acquiring and rebranding them as Talkie Town but most properties in the city are rather small. Our smallest Talkie Town is a 200-seater, while the largest is around 1200-seater. We would therefore look at smaller cities for setting up the Talkie Town brand, in places like Durgapur, Howrah, Asansol, Jharkhand, etc,” Kapur explained.

Currently the company operates 63 screens in 20 locations in India. The company has already signed additional 200 screens in approximately 36 cities across the country which will be operational by the end of 2009.

The company also plans to acquire 300 screens during 2008-09 under both formats, totaling its screen count to 550 by 2011.