PictureTime, a mobile digital movie theater startup received a Rs 25 Crore investment at an unrevealed valuation in a Pre Series A funding round.
The funds will serve to provide up to 100 operational additional digiplex cinema theaters by March 2019.
PictureTime offers cinema service in rural and semi-urban areas by converting a truck into a fireproof inflatable cinema theater where up to 120-150 people can watch a movie. It takes two hours for the digiplex cinema to be fully set up. PictureTime offers a mobile cinema with seating arrangements and digital projectors and 5.1 Dolby surround sound for a high-quality cinema experience. Tickets range between Rs30-50.
Outside the digiplex are installed local food courts, gaming activities and entertainment to provide people from small semi-urban and rural areas the possibility of experiencing something close to a multiplex cinema experience available in cities.
The company also creates digital marketplaces equipped with various functions in the location they visit. They also provide services like Wi-Fi hotspot and small ATMs which help villagers make bank transactions or compulsory Aadhaar Card linkages.
“Our aim is to use technology to not only provide high-quality entertainment to rural India but to also use our mobile digiplex cinema theaters as an outreach vehicle to generate awareness on educational and government schemes on initiatives around Digital India, Skill India, and Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. We are also trying to curb the problems of piracy in remote rural areas by releasing new movies simultaneously in the locations we are present in,” said PictureTime founder and CEO Sushil Chaudhary.
Founded in October 2015, the initiative to install mobile digiplex cinema theaters in rural areas comes from the wish to increase the number of cinema screens in India. PictureTime is currently possessing 10 mobile digiplex cinema theaters and has so far displayed movies in isolated villages of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Talking about the business model and scalability of PictureTime, Founder Chairman of CX Partners, Ajay Relan said, “PictureTime provides unique dual benefits to the rural population of India – a state of the art cinema experience as well as an outreach medium for both social messaging and private advertising all under one umbrella. By offering low-cost mobile cinema halls, the venture will help address the severe cinema theater crunch by increasing the screen count in remote parts of the country.”
The startup currently has a team of 30 employees but look forward to employing more labor force in different fields like a sales team and a Chief Financial Officer.
The Indian film industry is projected to grow at a rate of 11.5 percent every year, reaching a total gross amount of Rs 23,800 crore ($3.7 billion) by 2020, according to a report from BnBNation. Internet streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hotstar are also making their way on Indian televisions as they are gaining in popularity.