Temple city theatres spruce up

Tirupati: Even before multiplexes could take over the lion's share of entertainment in the temple city, the single screen theatre managements have ramped up their game in offering a complete cinema-viewing experience to the denizens.

Highlights:

• Fearing competition from multiplexes
• Theatres providing cinematic experience to moviegoers

Right from revamping their infrastructure to embracing latest technologies, single cinema theatres one after one have been transforming themselves into a new entity altogether. PGR cinemas, which earlier was almost unnoticed with screening of small movies is now, one of the most visited places for a talkie.

Strategically located between railway station and RTC Bus Complex, it experienced a complete overhaul included Dolby Atmos, 4K technology projector, plush seating, online booking and much more, taking the denizens, accustomed to normal theatres, by surprise. There are other cinema halls like Sandhya and CS have improved infrastructure like Dolby Atmos, 4K technology and latest ambience.

A moviegoer observed that “at last the theatre managements in Tirupati started thinking about audience comfort. Now, we are having comfortable plush seating, good snack bars, latest technology and above all good toilets at least in a few theatres”.

Speaking to The Hans India, the proprietor of PGR movies Pandraveti Abhishek said that they found it essential to offer the moviegoers with a wholesome cinematic experience with their friends and family, hence the need for a brand reinvention. “I thought of bringing the movie watching experience from big cities to Tirupati”.

Saying that single theatres cannot survive financially in this age of multiplexes, at least they should be transformed to modern trend with added attraction, he said.

Nowadays, all theatres are having Dolby sound system but most of them will have Dolby 7.1 or 5.1 which are said to be channel based which delivers all sounds from all channels whereas latest Dolby Atmos is object based through which the audience experience each sound from each separate speaker.

That’s the beauty of it, Abhishek said. Here also, to give more clarity and effect to the viewers they gave 57 channels to 57 speakers in the theatre, whereas some others give one channel to more than two speakers.

Similarly, Abhishek said, they can change the interiors overnight whenever they want as they have used modern gripper system. When malls come to the city in future, several single theatres will have to be closed as patronage may be declined.

“I have made an effort to stand even on that day. But it cannot be stopped here. We have to keep changing from time to time”, he maintained.

To a question on why some theatres which once stood as important land marks in the city have become shopping complexes and apartments, he said, “in some cases they were unable to run and closed them but in majority cases, they were unable to get movies because of a syndicate system that exists in cinema field”.