The Carnival Group plans to develop affordable community entertainment centres with cinema screens under the brand Jalsa Talkies, to expand to smaller towns and rural areas. These will be developed by its realty arm Carnival Realty and operated by its multiplex company, Carnival Cinemas.

The company will model Jalsa Talkies centres as community hubs with each having a supermarket, a multiplex with two-three screens with seating capacity of about 300 and F&B space. It has already signed ten locations in Kerala and Madhya Pradesh for developing the first set of entertainment centres.

Jagdeep Oberoi, CEO, Carnival Realty, said: “This is a standardised format developed after careful research specifically for the tier-3 and -4 towns with a population of 1-2 lakh.”

He said that the company worked with Knight Frank to develop the model. Carnival Realty aims to develop 100 Jalsa Talkies centres across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

“We believe there is potential to rapidly develop these projects. In the first year, we plan to make 30 projects operational. We will look at building these centres on leased lands. Overall, we will look at investments of about ₹300 crore to build 100 centres in the next 2-3 years,” he added.

This move is also in line with the company’s aim to operate 1,000 screens by 2021. “The tickets will be priced in the sub-₹100 range. Through Jalsa Talkies, we aim to give an affordable movie experience without compromising on the quality,” said Oberoi.

According to a report by FICCI and EY released earlier this year, the total number of multiplex screens were estimated to be at 9,601 in 2018.

“Multiplexes have been adding around 200-250 screens annually over the last few years and the trend is expected to continue going forward. New multiplex screen additions will happen in both metros and non-metros,” the report added.

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