Bengaluru consumer court fines PVR-INOX for delayed movie screening due to advertisements
Bengaluru: A consumer court in Bengaluru ruled against multiplex chain PVR-INOX for delaying movie screenings with excessive advertisements and directed it to specify actual movie start times on tickets. The court imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on the company for engaging in unfair trade practices and awarded ₹28,000 in compensation to the complainant.
The case was filed by Abhishek MR, who attended a screening of Sam Bahadur on December 26, 2023, at a PVR cinema. Though the movie was scheduled to start at 4:05 PM, it began at 4:30 PM after 25 minutes of advertisements. The delay disrupted his schedule, leading him to file a complaint against PVR, INOX, and BookMyShow. The court, however, ruled that BookMyShow was not liable.
In its order, the court criticised the practice of prolonged advertisements, stating that "time is money" and that forcing moviegoers to watch unnecessary ads for 25–30 minutes amounts to an unfair trade practice. It also noted that while cinemas are required to screen public service announcements (PSAs) before films, government guidelines cap PSAs at 10 minutes. The court found that 95% of the advertisements shown before Sam Bahadur were commercial.
PVR-INOX argued that pre-film advertisements help accommodate late arrivals, but the court rejected this justification. It directed the multiplex chain to ensure that movie tickets indicate the actual start time of the film, excluding advertisement durations.
As compensation, the court ordered PVR-INOX to pay ₹20,000 to Abhishek for mental distress and ₹8,000 for legal expenses.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
