The Hindu Business Line : Inox multiplex in Chennai soon

INOX Leisure Ltd has signed up to open a five-screen multiplex here. The company will invest Rs 10 crore in the multiplex, which will have a total of 1,200 seats.

According to a company official, the multiplex will come up in Chennai Citi Centre, a commercial property that is being developed on Radhakrishnan Salai.

Inox will be the entertainment anchor tenant in the property, which will also house large retail stores. The centre will be spread over 4,00,000 sq ft, according to the official. The multiplex is expected to start functioning by late 2005 or early 2006.

Inox Leisure, a subsidiary of Gujarat Flurochemicals Ltd, has multiplexes in operation in Pune, Vadodara and Kolkata. It plans to invest Rs 175- Rs 200 crore in opening multiplexes in more locations including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Allahabad and Noida.

All Inox complexes offer an option of three to five auditoriums, modern projection systems and acoustics, and THX certified or compliant auditoriums. The company hopes to manage or construct 15 multiplexes across the country over the next couple of years.

Chennai Citi Centre is being promoted by a company called Chennai Citi Centre Holdings P Ltd, for which ETA Constructions (India) P Ltd is the main contractor. The project lists its other occupants as Lifestyle, a retail chain, and Landmark, a bookstore. The complex will have three levels of shopping area and a food court.

According to entertainment industry sources, multiplexes will increasingly dominate the film exhibition sector in the years to come. A multiplex gives an exhibitor the flexibility to screen different films across the cinemas at different time intervals and also change the films from a larger-sized hall in the multiplex to a smaller one once occupancy drops.

In the city, two of the leading cinema complexes - Satyam and Abirami - have transformed themselves over the years. The Satyam complex has added to it cinema halls with fewer seats compared to the larger auditoriums in the complex.

Abirami, on the other, has seen its largest auditorium being converted into two cinemas. Also, it has become a mall with a food court and shopping plazas being added to the theatre complex, in a bid to bring more people to the complex.

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Inox multiplex in Chennai soon