Indian Court Fines PVR INOX for Prolonged Ads Delaying Movie Start Times

A Bengaluru man successfully sued PVR INOX for wasting his time with 25 minutes of ads, leading to compensation and stricter guidelines for cinemas.

The Bengaluru Urban Consumer Court ordered PVR INOX to pay over ₹1 lakh in penalties and compensation for showing excessive advertisements before a movie's scheduled start time.
The complainant, Abhishek MR, argued that the delay caused him to miss work commitments and led to mental distress, prompting the court to award him ₹65,000 in damages.
The court highlighted that cinemas must respect viewers' time and deemed the practice of running ads beyond scheduled showtimes as an unfair trade practice.
PVR INOX defended its actions, citing obligations to show government-mandated public service announcements, but the court ruled these should fit within a 10-minute pre-movie window.
The court also directed PVR INOX to clearly display actual movie start times on tickets to prevent similar issues in the future.