A 30-year-old man from Bengaluru has been awarded compensatory damages after taking legal action against PVR Cinemas and INOX for allegedly wasting 25 minutes of his time with lengthy pre-movie advertisements, causing him “mental agony.”
The complainant, Abhishek MR, filed a case in 2023 after booking three tickets for the movie Sam Bahadur at a PVR INOX theater. The show was scheduled to begin at 4:05 pm, and Abhishek had planned his day around the movie’s expected end time of 6:30 pm, intending to return to work afterward, as per a report on NDTV. However, the film did not start until 4:30 pm due to a series of advertisements and trailers, delaying the screening by nearly 30 minutes.
The consumer court, in its verdict, condemned the cinema chains for prolonging pre-movie advertisements past the scheduled start time. Emphasising the value of time in the modern era, the court noted that forcing viewers to sit idle for 25-30 minutes watching irrelevant ads is a significant inconvenience, particularly for those with busy schedules.
The court deemed the practice as “unfair trade practice”. Further, it ordered PVR and INOX to cease running advertisements beyond the scheduled start time of movie screenings, reported India Today.
PVR and INOX justified their approach, stating that pre-film advertisements help accommodate latecomers and that theaters have an obligation to screen public service announcements (PSAs). While the court acknowledged the need for PSAs, it pointed out that government guidelines limit PSA screenings to 10 minutes. The court also noted that 95% of the content shown before Sam Bahadur consisted of commercial advertisements rather than government-mandated PSAs.
During the proceedings, Abhishek presented evidence by recording the advertisements played before the movie. PVR attempted to counter this by claiming that the recording violated anti-piracy laws. However, the court dismissed this argument, stating that Abhishek had only recorded the commercials and not the film itself.
In its final ruling, the court ordered PVR INOX to pay Abhishek Rs 20,000 for causing him mental agony and inconvenience, Rs 8,000 to cover the costs of filing the complaint, and an additional Rs 1 lakh as punitive damages for engaging in unfair trade practices, as per a report on Indian Express.
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