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Archana Venkat

Reach for your mobile - and book your film tickets.

Mobile service provider Airtel has tied up with PVR Cinemas to offer `mobile ticketing' services to cinema goers planning on taking in a movie at any of PVR's cinemas.

The process takes less than 10 minutes, says the company, and one can book up to 10 tickets each for a film running at any PVR multiplex in India. One can also choose seats before paying for the tickets. PVR Cinemas is present in six cities - Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow and Delhi.

Using a GPRS and a JAVA-enabled (or Midp2 standard enabled) cell-phone, Airtel's customers can download the `Mobile Ticketing' option free of charge from `Airtel Live!,' a portal offering value-added mobile services such as news updates. The application can also be downloaded through the short messaging service (SMS).

Tickets can be paid using credit card. Sanjay Kapoor, Joint President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, says the mobile ticketing facility is secure and users don't have to worry about disclosing their credit card numbers.Post payment, a ticket confirmation ID is sent to the user. This needs to be shown at the PVR Cinemas ticket counter for issuing a paper ticket for entry into the cinema hall. For personal identification, one is required to carry the credit card used for ticket payment.

Launched recently, the service seems to be catching up. "In the pilot phase, over 800 tickets have been booked and over 20,000 downloads of the mobile ticketing application have been recorded," says Kapoor.Though the application download and use is free of charge, one will be billed on the air- time used to access and complete the mobile ticketing process. Additionally, Rs 10 per ticket will be charged by payment gateway operators, such as credit card companies, as service charge, says Kapoor.

The application offers movie information including screensavers, reviews, actors' interviews and user comments, for films running at PVR Cinemas.

Other mobile service providers offer similar facilities through SMS in specific telecom circles. Hutchison Essar provides movie information to users and Idea Cellular offers to home-deliver movie tickets.

archana@thehindu.co.in

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