A 30-year-old Bengaluru-based man sued PVR Cinemas, INOX, and BookMyShow for “wasting” 25 minutes of his time. He sued them for running long advertisements before the screening of a film. The complainant claimed that this delayed his appointments and induced “mental agony” during a show of Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Sam Bahadur.’

In his complaint, Abhishek MR alleged that in 2023 he booked three tickets for the 4:05 pm show of ‘Sam Bahadur.’ He claimed that as per the schedule, the movie was going to end by 6.30 pm after which he planned to return to work commitments. However, to his surprise, the movie started at 4.30 pm. The theatre chain streamed advertisements and trailers which “wasted nearly 30 minutes of the time.”

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The complaint stated, “The complainant could not attend other arrangements and appointments which were scheduled for the day.” It added that the compalinant incurred losses which cannot be have a monetary compensation. He claimed that the practice clearly falls “within the meaning of unfair trade practice as they wrongly communicated the show timings to take undue advantage by playing advertisement.”

Meanwhile, their defence, PVR INOX claimed obligation under the law to screen certain Public Service Announcements (PSA) to spread awareness. However, the court said that theatres should screen the PSAs within 10 minutes before the commencement of the film and during the interval period before the second half of a film.

Subsequently, the consumer court asserted that “time is considered as money.” It directed PVR INOX to compensate for the loss incurred by the complainant. The court directed the chain to pay Rs 50,000 for unfair trade practice and wasting the time of the complainant. The court also asked the chain to pay Rs 5,000 for mental agony and Rs 10,000 for “filing the complaint and other reliefs.” Moreover, the court also imposed a penalty of 1lakh on PVR INOX.

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The court noted that “no one has the right to gain benefit out of others’ time and money.” It emphasised that “25-30 is not less to sit idle in the theatre and watch whatever the theatre telecasts. It is very hard for busy people with tight schedules to watch unnecessary advertisements.”