It’s a four-screen multiplex on the city’s Outer Ring Road that opened more than three years ago. When it opened, the food, picture and sound quality seemed quite good, but now it’s becoming progressively worse. Here are my grouses:
1. The management is corrupt. On opening days of big movies, the man at the ticket counter hands out ‘advance receipts’ as ‘entry tickets’. The scam: the advance receipts are not taxed as there is no rate of admission stamped on it. Thereby, the management is defrauding the income tax authorities.
2. Even on week-days when the fare is supposed to be less, the management charges exhorbitant rates. Just last Wednesday (Dec 26), it charged Rs 250 for a balcony ticket for Welcome. And mind you, even the best multiplex in town, PVR, charges only Rs 200 for weekend shows (and Rs 250 for advance booking). Whereas here, I was being charged Rs 250 for a show that was to begin in the next 15 minutes.
3. Unlike other multiplexes, there are no special rates for morning shows before 12pm when even a market leader in Bangalore like PVR has such a policy.
4. The soft drinks given here reek of smell resembling kerosene. Obviously, it’s diluted and yet, they charge Rs 40 for a small can when PVR dishes out the best Pepsi you could ever get anywhere for Rs 50 (regular) and Rs 60 (large).
5. The sound sucks big time. There is no Dolby stereo. And even if they claim to have one, it appears to be of inferior quality. Movie-watching should be a well-rounded experience. Even if one of the things go missing, your experience is that much more hampered. And Innovative fails on more than one count. Will the management sit up and take notice?
6. To think that it’s the same management that’s going to run the upcoming Innovative Film City in Bidadi, one wonders how bad that experience would be. If things are going so wrong in the heart of the city, god help those who venture all the way to Bidadi. Cheap tactics might add to the coffers in the short term, but in the increasingly consumer-driven society, entities like Innovative will be shipped out if they don’t shape up.