Businessworld Honours Cinema Exhibitors

In a gala event attended by the who's who of the Cinema Exhibition industry at the ITC Grand Central on Friday (15 May), BW Businessworld concluded the inaugural edition of their pioneering initiative titled: The Fridays.

The power packed conference started with a lineup of interesting sessions and esteemed speakers from the film making businesses.

The panelists engaged in discussions and debated pertinent issues like single screen rejuvenation and cinema advertising. The speakers included, Rafiquee Baghdadi -  renowned journalist & historian, Manmohan Shetty - Chairman, Adlabs Entertainment, Nazir Hoosien | Owner - Liberty Cinemas, Mumbai, Rafeeq Ellias - Emmy Award winning film maker & photographer, Pranav Ashar - Founder, Matterden Film Society, Rahul Puri - Managing Director, Mukta Arts, Amit Khanna - Former Chairman, Reliance Entertainment, Ramesh Nair - International Director & COO, Jones Lang LaSalle, Bharti Dubey - Renowned Film Journalist, Vijay Kapoor - Senior Vice President, Business Development, PVR Ltd., P V Sunil - CEO, Carnival Cinemas, Devang Sampat - Business Head, Strategic Initiatives - Cinepolis India, Komal Nahta - Renowned Film Analyst & Journalist, Professor Bharathan Kandaswamy - Course Director, IIM Ahmedabad, M S Rajagopalan - President, Qube Cinema Network, Ajay Mehta - Founder, Interactive Television, Girish Menon - Director, KPMG, Amitabh Tapadar - Vice President, Tata AIA & Gautam Dutta, CEO - PVR Cinemas.

The closing remarks of the conference were delivered by Ajay Bijli, Chairman & Managing Director, PVR Ltd.

The evening saw the winners being felicitated by Annurag Batra alongwith the Chief Guest and the Jury Chairperson: Subhash Ghai and Manmohan Shetty respectively

The winners were selected based on entries sent by them after much deliberation by an esteemed jury across diverse categories like marketing initiatives, fastest growing chains, new properties developed, programming & business innovation and best theater chains regionally as well as nationally. Bagging the award for the Best Theater Chain in the National Category for the sub strata of multiplexes above was PVR Cinemas, while the winner in the strata of multiplexes below 20 screens saw Miraj Cinemas lift the trophy whereas the Single Screen winner for this category was Raj Mandir Cinemas of Jaipur.

Subhash Ghai was also felicitated by BW Businessworld for his Pioneering Contribution to the Field of Cinema Education for setting up a state of the art institute Whistling Woods by braving heavy odds.

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