Indian man awarded damages over length of commercials before movie screening

PVR operates 173 cinemas across India and Sri Lanka. An Indian man has been awarded damages in a legal case against the country’s biggest movie theater chain after he complained that it showed too many commercials before a movie. (Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters/File via CNN Newsource)

An Indian man has been awarded damages in a legal case against the country’s biggest movie theater chain after he complained that it showed too many commercials before a movie.

Abhishek M R, a 31-year-old lawyer from the southern city of Bangalore, decided to take action against the PVR INOX chain after he was forced to cancel work calls because the movie overran the scheduled finish time.

In a case brought before Bangalore’s District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, he claimed that his time was wasted and that he suffered “mental agony” as a result of the 25 minutes of commercials that preceded a 2023 screening of the film “Sam Bahadur.”

According to a court document obtained by CNN, Abhishek bought three tickets to see the war drama on the afternoon of December 26, 2023. The schedule at the PVR multiplex in Bangalore suggested the movie, which runs for 2 hours and 25 minutes, was due to start at 4.05 p.m. and finish at 6.30 p.m.

The late finish time was caused by “trailers, advertisements and other fillers which wasted nearly 30 mins of the time of the complainant along with the other viewers,” Abhishek claimed, according to the court document. This, it said, caused him to face “losses which cannot be calculated in terms of money.”

Abhishek told CNN that he had scheduled a work call for 6.30 p.m. but had to miss it as the film did not finish until around 7 p.m. He said he counted two public service announcements and 17 commercials before the movie started.

He claimed the delay amounted to “unfair trade practice” and sued PVR INOX for 50,000 rupees ($574) in damages. He applied for another 5,000 rupees ($57) for the “mental agony” and for a further 10,000 rupees ($115) to cover legal costs.

The consumer disputes commission found in Abhishek’s favor and ordered the chain to pay him 20,000 ($230) in damages and a further 8,000 ($92) in costs. The company was also ordered to pay another 100,000 rupees ($1,148) to the Consumer Welfare Fund, a government body that aims to protect consumers.

In its ruling, the commission said: “In the new era, time is considered as money, each one’s time is very precious.” It went on to say that 25 to 30 minutes is “a considerable amount of time to sit idle in the theatre and watch unnecessary ads. People with tight schedules do not have time to waste.”

PVR INOX operates more than 900 screens in 173 cinemas across India and Sri Lanka, according to its Facebook page.

Although it did not respond to a request for comment from CNN, the court documents show that the theater chain defended itself by saying it was legally required to show 10 minutes of public service announcements prior to the film. However, most of the footage before the film was found to be advertising commercial products.

Highlighting just how much national and international media coverage the case has got, Abhishek said his “efforts were definitely worth it,” adding that he hoped the case would have an impact on other Indian businesses.

“Every other business in India has started to think about time being of the essence and how to not waste their customers’ time,” he said.