An Indian man who complained of “mental agony” over the long commercials before a movie has been awarded damages in a legal case against the country’s biggest cinema chain.
Abhishek M R, a 31-year-old lawyer from the southern city of Bangalore, said he decided to take action against the PVR INOX chain after he was forced to cancel a work call because the movie ran beyond when he thought it would finish.
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.
According to a court document obtained by CNN, Abhishek went to see “Sam Bahadur,” a military biopic, on the afternoon of Dec. 26, 2023, at a PVR multiplex in Bangalore. The schedule said the movie, with a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, would start at 4:05 p.m.
Abhishek scheduled a work call for 6:30 p.m. but he missed it because the movie did not end until around 7.
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. He said he counted two public service announcements and 17 commercials before the movie started.
The delay, he countended, amounted to “unfair trade practice,” and he 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 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.”
Although PVR did not respond to a request for comment from CNN, 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.
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.
The-CNN-Wire
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