Just about 3 years ago, Bangalore didn't have a single multiplex theater. Innovative Multiplex was the very first and it was more than welcomed by Bangaloreans. Though located on the outer ring road near Marathahalli, which at that time was sparsely populated, it had people coming in from the center of the city and actually waiting for 3 hours to watch a movie as there was nothing better to do around the place in case you didn't get tickets for the intended show.
Infrastructure wise the glossiness of the multiplex was only external and inside it was the pits to start with itself. They didn't have noise/echo cancellers and during the silent parts of a movie you could actually hear the going-ons on the next screen. They never provided decent parking. They have never had any offers that I see advertised (though once I did manage to get weekday 3.30PM show tickets at 50% off). They were the only big business on that service road then and they didn't do anything to improve the situation of the road leading up to the entrance(something like what Synopsys is doing on Old Madras Road near Benegenahalli).
One always expects such things to improve over time, but it was not to be. The approach road remains pathetic. The entry or exit on a four wheeler is nothing short of a nightmare during weekends. The parking facilities remain bad and to think that they have actually given up some of the land that was previously used for parking to an upcoming Benetton showroom! With respect to audio, they have some kind of noise cancellers installed now, but it is still far from satisfactory when you consider that you pay almost the same/more than what you would pay at the Forum Mall or Inox Multiplex. They still have no offers running. They have no electronic or for that matter white board display of the status of the movie ticket sales and you have to resign to wait-and-watch-and-pray. The ticket salesman/woman also are far from courteous, comparatively. The bucket of woes is never ending when you consider that there is so little "value for money" at this place.
The theatre continues to do good business though. My guess is that the people living in and around the place want to save on fuel or the traffic pains of going to the center of the city and live up with such costly mediocrity. I had long stopped going to this theatre and I unfortunately ended up there today and all the bad memories just came alive! Desperately waiting for the IDEB Venture (includes a multiplex) coming up on the Marathahalli-KR Puram outer ring road stretch. :-(
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2 comments:
Town planning is extermely poor. In our colony, they have allowed hospitals and banks which causes a lot of traffic headaches.
Yes. I don't understand why we don't manage to enforce town planning even in this modern day and age. For e.g. Innovative Multiplex should not have been allowed to set shop if they don't have enough parking made available!
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