Cinema exhibitor PVR INOX Ltd plans to add around 100 screens next year entailing an investment of around Rs 200 crore, its Executive Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli said on Friday.

The company, which launched an AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot, Movie Jockey (MJ), for movie discovery and booking experience, plans to add 100 screens every year going forward.

"This year so far we opened about 70 odd screens and closed about 45-50 screens. We will be adding about 40 more screens this year and we will be closing down another 10-15 screens," Bijli told PTI here on the sidelines of the launch.

The idea was to close down about 75 screens this year and add about 120, he said, adding "so we are on track".

When asked about future expansion plans, Bijli said, "The following year we are looking at adding almost 100 screens per year." When asked about investments, he said next year's pipeline of 100 screens will entail a capital outlay of about Rs 200 crore.

"We are looking at asset light model now going forward," he said, adding a large contribution to the investment will come from the developers.

At present, PVR INOX has 1,744 screens across 355 properties in 111 cities across India.

When asked about the current market situation after a slow quarter two, Bijli said, "Q3 seems to be in a better place now. October was a bit dull, but November is firing already." With a good pipeline of new movie releases, he said Q3 is looking much better.

"Second half (of the fiscal) is looking much better, first half was bit muted because a lot of movie releases got pushed to the second half," Bijli said, the company has a good lineup of new movies releasing in Q3 and Q4.

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