CHENNAI: Pushing the frontiers of the ultimate movie-watching experience, Abirami Mall is soon set to launch its ‘seven-star theatre’. The theatre, which will be inaugurated by the chief minister on Tuesday, will offer a range of services, including a sumptuous meal, pick-up and drop and a soothing body massage.
Even as Swarna Shakthi Abirami, the theatre attached to the mall, which has recliners for seats, is making waves in the theatre circuit, the seven-star theatre is all set to up the movie-watching experience by several notches.
Says Abirami Ramanathan, owner of the mall, “The customers will be pampered will an array of services, which begins with body massage where massage chairs will offer a massage every 20 minutes to the first-class ticket holders (known as platinum range).
They will also be served lunch, high-tea or dinner, based on the show timing.” The theatre has three categories - platinum, gold and regular, he added.
For every movie screened in this ‘entertainment’s last frontier’, there will be a pick-up and drop made available, in air-conditioned vehicles, while a prepaid auto system will also be in place for all those who visit the mall, he said.
Keeping with the grandiose nature of the project, the theatre has been designed like a Spanish Opera House. And in terms of screening technology, the seven-star theatre is equipped with the latest in projection technologies, and can handle even 3 D projection, Ramanathan said.
While the ticket rates remain fixed at Rs 120, other services will be chargeable, he added. The theatre will have a seating capacity of 834 seats, and will be operational from May 21, when filmmaker TP Gajendran’s ‘Maganey En Marumaganey’ is released.
There’s another distinction making its way for the Abirami Theatre Group - that of vying for an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, for having 44 films in its theatres making the six-month run, apart from 240 films which have run for 100 days. “Our theatre chain began in 1976. In 34 years, we have attained this kind of a screening record.
We are checking to see if it qualifies as a record for the Guinness Book,” Ramanathan said.