Hindi
Mounting expenses dent bottom line of Inox and Cinemax
MUMBAI: The profitability of multiplexes is being clobbered by rising expenditure as content cost is on the upswing and there is pressure to scale up screens.
Indiantelevision.com looks at two multiplexes to elucidate this reality. Both Inox and Cinemax have announced their fiscal results and the common thread that we find is a dent in the bottom line.
While Inox Leisure Ltd. has seen a gradual rise in annual revenues, profit margins have gradually eroded. Although expenses have increased in all sectors of the business, the chief contributors include film distributors‘ share (at Rs 530 million); property rent and conduction fees (at Rs 264.3 million) and entertainment tax (at Rs 284 million). The corresponding expenditure in these areas last year stood at Rs 449.6 million, Rs 187.7 million and Rs 215.7 million respectively. Inox has also increased its screen tally from 84 to 91 for the year.
The problem area is also on the revenue side, which has slowed down substantially in FY‘09.
A look at the financial figures of Inox reflects the actual picture of a multiplex that is beginning to feel the pinch of a slowdown. The table below shows the numbers from FY‘06 to FY‘09.
| INOX financial figures (in Rs millions) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The graph below indicates how rising expenditure has eaten into the profits of the company.
Inox is not the only multiplex plagued by rising costs. Cinemax reflects a similar story, though its revenue is also on the upside.
As can be seen from the table and graph below, there is a stark difference in expenditure incurred in FY‘08 and FY‘09. Profit margins have really been compressed.
| Cinemax financial figures (in Rs millions) | ||||||||||||||||
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Ambitious expansion plans by Cinemax may be one of the reasons for the steep rise in expenditure. The number of screens increased from 52 in the last fiscal year to 74 this year, which means an addition of 22 screens in the last year.
Profitably of Cinemax has headed south. The graph below shows how expenditure in the year ending 31 March 2009 towers above the corresponding values of the previous year. Although this has been accompanied by an increase in revenues, profits have taken a hit. Other than the first quarter, the profits in FY‘09 have been lower than their counterparts the previous year across all quarters.
It remains to be seen how the new revenue share deal with the film producers and distributors is going to affect these two multiplexes. That, however, is not going to prove a hurdle for Inox‘s and Cinemax‘s growth plans. Cinemax, for instance, is planning to pump in between Rs 800 million and Rs 1 billion to roll out 50 screens in the current fiscal.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
