PVR Home brings 'Screening Room' to watch, learn and talk films

PVR Home membership costs Rs 150,000, which gives access to club amenities, including glorified living room space and terrace bar, and discounts on tickets for Director's Cut and exhaustive F&B menu

I don't remember the last time I watched a film sitting on a couch, sipping on a lager. And neither can I recall a time when the director of the film was seated next to me sipping on red wine. The film was 'Rang De Basanti' and I had a nice chat with Rakesh Omprakash Mehra about it, and cinema. How Netflix and mobile screens are changing cinema and why <Kabir Singh> is such a ravaging box office success despite its cringe-worthy, eponymous character. "Good or bad, it's about starting a conversation," says Mehra. "As a director, I would hit stagnation without criticism."

PVR Home, a delectably curated space, adjoining PVR Director's Cut in Delhi's Vasant Kunj, came to the capital in February, after debuting in Mumbai. With it came PVR's floating property called "Screening Room", which brings together commercially acclaimed films and their makers to its select patrons. Mehra came to Delhi to give a masterclass on his favourite film, like Anurag Kashyap and Sriram Raghavan did in Mumbai. Zoya Akhtar is next on PVR's radar.

"It's about creating a space for a pre- and post-film experience," says Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, joint managing director, PVR. Sit by the bar and feast on sushi while you're at it. 

The membership for PVR Home costs Rs 150,000, which gives one access to its club amenities, including a glorified living room space and a terrace bar, and discounts on tickets for Director's Cut and the exhaustive F&B menu. Yearly renewal is Rs 50,000. Apart from having directors come and talk about their films during 'Screening Room' events, it has a weekly calendar of performances, which include live jazz bands and stand-up acts, along with casual movie nights.

Next on PVR's agenda is to regularly screen popular foreign films and create discussing around global cinema. "There wasn't an audience for it in Delhi earlier, but now there is a growing one," says Bijli. It's poised to be Siri Fort auditorium hosting a film festival but with red and blue couches, table lamps, a bar and a neatly dressed staff in full swing. It's for cinema lovers and the elitists in them. Watch and learn people, one film at a time.