{"id":1079,"date":"2012-07-30T17:40:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T17:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2026-10-30T08:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:36:38","slug":"movie-madness-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/travel\/india\/movie-madness-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Madness in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had time to kill and headed to the local Forum Mall to stroll around and perhaps catch a film. With Bollywood being the largest output producer of films in the world, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
\n\"\"<\/a>A short 5-minute rickshaw ride — I love these things (without doors they’re easy to get in and out of, and you can smoke during your ride) and I\u2019d arrived; it cost eighty cents!<\/p>\n

The mall was a big change from the local shopping district I toured yesterday. It was very modern, with all the western and worldwide labels you’d see in any mall in America; clothes from Lee, Wrangler, Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, mixed in with other traditional Indian fashions ; electronics such as Apple and Samsung, eateries such as KFC and Pizza Hut (I ate lunch at Pizza Hut and to my taste their menu was a step up from the U.S.A.), cafes and a food court with the Subway chain, Chinese and other stands as well.<\/p>\n

They had a movie theater there (PVR), and among the Hollywood offerings was The Amazing Spider-man (which I had previously seen and<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Security checking bags at mall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

reviewed<\/a><\/em><\/strong>) and The Dark Knight Rises. \u00a0I bought a ticket for the latter: R1200 (1,200 rupees), or about US$ 24, which seemed incredibly steep considering my lunch — consisting of soup, chicken quesadillas and a bottle of water — only cost me US$3, and my hotel was only US$30 a night.<\/p>\n

However, this was unlike any theater I had ever been in — I’ve read about them (in Texas and even Moscow).<\/p>\n

As I entered through the lobby doorway, I was struck by the lounge area of overstuffed club chairs and couches, though I couldn’t imagine why anyone would opt to hang out in a theater. Inside the movie room itself, there were only thirty-two seats; incredibly large, plush, wide chairs with a side table and individual controls for the chair; they even provided a pillow. The sound within was extraordinary, which for a partially deaf old man like me was welcome.<\/p>\n

The lounge out front? \u00a0That was there to relax in during the intermission. \u00a0Attendants also came around to refresh any order you might have for drinks, snacks and\/or food; “you can pay after the film” he said. \u00a0\u00a0Having just eaten shortly before, I ordered only a bucket of popcorn (R$120 = US$2.25); they also had sandwiches, and a wide array of other foods and appetizers that one would find at a restaurant.<\/p>\n

So all-in, my day at the movies cost me US$26, which with popcorn and ticket was only about US$2 more than a ticket and popcorn at a New York theater, but was far more comfortable.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as the lights came up for the intermission, I had a lovely chat with an Indian woman in the seat next to me; she provided some insight to the city, and recommended that I visit Mysore — only a few hours from Bangalore, but a nice tourist place she said, with a grand palace to see.<\/p>\n

If and when I visit, I’ll you know what I find there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had time to kill and headed to the local Forum Mall to stroll around and perhaps catch a film. With Bollywood being the largest output producer of films in the world, I wasn’t sure what to expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ba_format":"Report","ba_short_answer":"","ba_case_file":"","ba_archive_note":"","ba_updated":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[197,180,200,191],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-india","tag-bangalore","tag-india","tag-pvr","tag-travel-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2168,"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brieaustin.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}