As Agneet Kumar, AVP, PVR Cinemas,told FE, the film comes as an add-on while you’re eating.

At just R1,000 a ticket — for a carload of people —Mumbai’s first drive-in theatre that opens in August at Maker Maxity in the Bandra Kurla Complex, an eastern suburb in Mumbai, promises to be a good deal. There’s place for a good 300 cars so PVR Cinemas can rake in a potential R3 lakh per show. If that sounds like a bit of a squeeze, there’s also a fine dining area, all done up, with space to seat a hundred people. Of course that means shelling out a fancy sum for the meal but the movie comes free. As Agneet Kumar, AVP, PVR Cinemas,told FE, the film comes as an add-on while you’re eating. “And for those who don’t want to be cooped up in a car, there’s a six-screen multiplex located below the drive-in where tickets are priced between R250-300 for normal seats and R750 for the reclining ones.

But make sure you leave home early so you don’t miss the beginning of the film. The traffic into BKC from the western suburbs is so heavy it takes anywhere between an hour and 80 minutes to get to the place. While there are four road projects — in various stages of implementation — that will help provide better connectivity, none of these is expected before 2018-end. The land for one road being built from the Western Expressway near Kalina, to G Block in BKC, in fact, has just been acquired.

But at the end of the day, all roads will lead to BKC because as FE had reported earlier this year, it is now a business district by day and an entertainment hotspot by night. While investments bankers cut deals during the day, by 9 PM the film actors, businessmen and sportsmen are trooping in to sip the wine at Michelin-starred restaurants. Once the drive-in theatre and multiplex are thrown open, the country’s most coveted office address will also become the ‘go to’ place for entertainment.

By end 2017, Reliance Industries’ mammoth 70, 00,000 square feet convention centre, complete with exhibition facilities, serviced apartments and a mall should be up and running. The fun element: an auditorium for live performances built on the lines of the Kodak theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Also in the works is another sprawling 5, 00,000 sq ft mall—within the Maker Maxity office complex, the handiwork of the Maker Group and RIL.

Property consultants reckon real estate prices —for residential apartments—are likely to stay elevated. Sunteck Realty’s five–bedroom luxury apartments come at Rs 35 crore apiece, clearly only for the well-heeled.

PVR Cinema has leased the property from the developers of Maker Maxity for 15 years and is investing about Rs 50 crore in the facility. Of the six screens, two would be PVR Gold Class, one would be a home theatre for movie previews with a small 35-seater auditorium. “The other three will be regular big auditoriums,” Kumar said.