Indian Government Aims To Open 1 Lakh Cinema Halls Across India

Mumbai, December 6 - The lack of cinema halls in India could end as the government of India is launching a scheme to open over 100K theatres in the country. State-run CSC e-Governance Services will open 10,000 cinema halls in rural areas by the end of 2024 in collaboration with October Cinemas, according to NDTV.

The opening of theaters in rural areas is part of an agreement signed between CSC, an SPV under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, and October Cinemas. The agreement has been signed with an aim to open around 1 lakh small movie theatres, each having a seating capacity of 100-200 seats.



"The concept of cinema halls in villages is still new. The aim is to start small cinema halls with around 100 seats. CSC cinema halls will open new avenues for our VLEs (Village-Level Entrepreneurs)", CSC Managing Director Sanjay Kumar Rakesh said.

"Entertainment sector is booming in India and our VLEs will help in the growth of the sector in rural and semi-urban areas. CSC cinema halls, which will also work as a commercial hub, will make our services more accessible to the people in rural areas", he added.

Punit Desai, Managing Director of October Cinemas said that an investment of around ₹ 15 lakh is needed to run these cinema halls which will have video parlour cinema licenses. Under the memorandum of understanding, CSC (Common Service Centre) plans to open 1,500 cinema halls by the end of 2023 which will also act as a hub of various CSC activities in rural areas.

"We are launching CSC Rural Cinema for the entertainment of villagers in remote areas. India is the world's largest entertainment market in terms of movie consumption. Our venture will have features to control the piracy of films. We have already got over 5,000 express of interest requests from VLEs. We hope to make around 10,000 cinema halls operational in rural areas by the end of 2024", Punit Desai said.

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