MUMBAI: PVR Ltd. and SRS Cinemas, who had got into a franchisee agreement for three screens, have parted ways. SRS will now expand its own brand and plans to reach 100 screens by end of next fiscal.

As per a franchise agreement, PVR Ltd was operating the cinemas of SRS group with respect to three screens, located at Faridabad and Haryana, under the name of SRS PVR.

PVR says it decided to discontinue the franchise agreement with SRS, terminating it effective 1 March.

Though PVR Ltd will no more be operating the cinemas of SRS, it is in talks to handle SRS' marketing, not only of cinemas but also the mall properties.

Says SRS Group chief executive exhibition Amitabh Bardhan, "To increase our operating efficiency, we decided to discontinue the franchise agreement. However, we plan to get into a bigger consolidation now wherein we would be handling the marketing of SRS Cinemas, its mall, food court and Value Bazaar. But yes, we would be dropping PVR from SRS PVR."

SRS Cinemas already has nine screens operating under this name in UP, Gaziabad and Faridabad, and plans to open 20 more in the next one month.

"We already have nine operational screens in UP, Gaziabad and Faridbad. We will be stretching to 100 screens by the end of FY09. This will include places like Ludhina, Amritsar, Ahmadabad, Pune, Jaipur, Delhi, Patiala, Merut and Indore," says an official source in SRS Cinemas.