A Bengaluru consumer court ruled in favour of a man who sued PVR Cinemas and INOX (now merged with PVR) for wasting his time with long commercial advertisements before the film started. The court directed the cinemas to ensure the ticket time mentions the actual time the movie starts rather than the time advertisements are screened before the movie, reported Bar and Bench.

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The complainant, Abhishek MR, claimed that 25 minutes of his time were wasted during a PVR cinema screening of the film Sam Bahadur in 2023 as he was forced to watch long commercial advertisements before the movie started. 

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The delay made it difficult for him to get back to work as he had planned, following which he sued PVR Cinemas, BookMyShow and INOX. However, the district consumer forum noted that BookMyShow cannot be blamed for this as it has no control over movie show timings or advertisements.

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‘Time is very precious’

“In the new era, time is considered as money, each one's time is very precious, no one has right to gain benefit out of others time and money. 25-30 (minutes) is not less to sit idle in the theatre and watch whatever the theatre telecasts. It is very hard for busy people with tight schedule watching unnecessary advertisements. However, they make their own arrangements to get some relaxation with family. (This does) not mean that people have no other work to do,” the consumer forum said.

The forum directed PVR to mention the actual time the movie starts on cinema tickets, which are issued to the public. It also ordered them to stop engaging in unfair trade practices and not to exhibit advertisements beyond the scheduled show times mentioned in the ticket.

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PVR was further instructed to pay Rs 20,000 to the complainant for causing him mental agony and inconvenience and also pay an additional Rs 8,000 to cover the expenses of filing the complaint.

PVR Cinemas and Inox were also ordered to pay Rs 1 lakh for engaging in unfair trade practices, according to the February 15 order, reported Bar and Bench.

The two multiplexes defended their actions saying that theatres are legally bound to screen public service announcements (PSAs) to spread awareness about important social causes, as mandated by the government. While the consumer forum agreed with this, it noted that even the government’s guidelines mention screening PSAs need not exceed 10 minutes.

The commission further dismissed arguments of long ads benefitting latecomers who may be held at security checks, saying that it is unfair to moviegoers who are punctual and have to watch long movie ads for this reason only.

(With inputs from agencies)