At INOX Forum. A Telegraph picture

Investment: Rs 150 crore.

Plexes: 16.

Screens: 60.

Seats: 16,145.

By: Early 2010.

INOX Leisure Ltd (ILL), owner of the INOX brand, is moving into top gear with its Calcutta-plus plans. “We are bullish on Calcutta, which stems from the overwhelming response of the city’s cine-goers to our existing properties (four screens each in Forum and City Centre) and the proactive nature of the local administration. By the first quarter of 2010, we are looking at 16 multiplexes with 60 screens in Bengal. Our national target is 53 plexes and 206 screens,” Alok Tandon, chief operating officer of the group, tells Metro.

INOX introduced Calcutta to multiplex magic in September 2003. It has hit many highs in the city, including record footfall of 5,950 on a single day (May 1, 2006). “The average occupancy rate is around 56-60 per cent in Calcutta, the highest in the country,” says Vikas Syal, the regional general manager.

City Centre II in New Town, Rajarhat, is slated to house Calcutta’s third INOX multiplex, to open by March 2008, with four screens for 1,254 viewers. A five-screen plex in the Diamond City North mall, on Jessore Road, is scheduled to screen films by June. There should be four screens in Howrah by end-2008 and another two screens and 500 seats in Woodburn Park by April 2010.

The company’s impending merger with Calcutta Cine Pvt Ltd (CCPL), which runs its business under the 89 Cinemas brand name, will see a four-screen project coming up on Panditiya Road, in south Calcutta, by end-2008.

Beyond Calcutta, INOX has a three-screen multiplex up and running in Darjeeling, with plans to add Burdwan, Midnapore, Siliguri, Kharagpur, Asansol and Guwahati to its reel roadmap in this part of the world.