Hindi
PVR Q2 net up 27% as exhibition biz picks up
MUMBAI: Multiplex companies are bouncing back after a dismal first quarter performance due to the strike that halted fresh Bollywood content for two months. Delhi-based PVR Ltd. posted a 27.52 per cent jump in its second-quarter net profit over the earlier year, showing growth signs in the exhibition business while it remained almost idle in film production.
The movie exhibition major, which had suffered losses in the first quarter because of a standoff between producers and plex owners, posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 64.4 million for the three months ended September, as against Rs 50.5 million a year ago.
PVR‘s total income fell 15.11 per cent in the quarter to Rs 922.2 million (from Rs 1.09 billion), mainly because of less activity in its movie production and distribution segment.
Total expenses in the quarter fell to Rs 806 million, while Ebitda at Rs 192.5 million was up 18.61 per cent from the earlier-year period.
PVR Ltd CMD Ajay Bijli commented, “The first quarter of the current financial year had been challenging on account of lack of movie content for more than 65 days due to strike between producers/distributors and exhibitors. The business was back to normal in this quarter.”
Occupancies in the fiscal second quarter averaged at around 33 per cent as compared to a dismal 20 per cent in the trailing quarter. Average ticket price increased to Rs 145, from Rs 132 in the previous quarter.
“On back of various operating initiatives taken by the management to improve revenues and rationalise costs, we have been able to achieve an Ebitda margin of 21 per cent during the quarter as compared to 15 per cent in corresponding period of last year. Overall, we see the consumer sentiments really buoyant towards movie going and on back of line up of films that are releasing in next few quarters we remain highly positive about the long-term prospects of the leisure and entertainment industry,” Bijli added.
In the segment wise result, the exhibition business revenues increased to Rs 876 million during the quarter under review, as against Rs 829.8 million. The operating profit zoomed up to Rs 127.7 million, from Rs 92 million.
The PVR Pictures business (movie production and distribution) was slow as there was no major movie distributed/released by the company. The revenue from the segment dropped to Rs 12.3 million, compared to Rs 302.5 million. The operating loss from the segment stood at Rs 19.9 million, as against Rs 1.3 million a year ago.
From the bowling alleys business, the company got a revenue of Rs 35.3 million and profit of Rs 8.4 million.
PVR has 108 screens and 27,890 seats spread across 14 cities.
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.
