Pyramid Saimira to lease 150 film theatres in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 18 (IANS) Chennai based movie theatre chain Pyramid Saimira Theatre Limited (PSTL) is all set to lease out 150 film theatres across Kerala this fiscal.

"Our initial investment in Kerala would be Rs.250 million and apart from leasing out film theatres, we also would produce 10 Malayalam films every year. We have already taken the national distribution rights for Mohanlal's 'Pardesi' and the Kerala rights for the Hindi film 'Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag'," P.S. Saminathan, managing director of the company said Saturday.

PSTL has already finished lease deals with several theatres in the state. They have a total of 371 leased theatres under their management in south India.

"We plan to be present in 1,550 locations across the country with over 2,000 leased theatres by 2010," he said.

The entry of PSTL is certainly going to be welcomed by the beleaguered Malayalam film industry where the number of films released in a year has fallen to around 80.

A decade back, Kerala had around 1,200 film theatres. The number has come down to less than 900 now.