MUMBAI: Now you can enjoy films and even learn at the same place! This sounds interesting – but it is actually happening. TimePass Media Private Limited has launched the country’s most ambitious cinema exhibition project to install over 5,000 digital 3D cinema halls – TimePass Digiplex across India in the next 2 years.

They plan to cover 6,000 villages in India under its entertainment exhibition network in next 5 years. This translates to the fact that world-class facilities would be available at pocket-friendly prices. Besides, it intends to create several lakh jobs in the process.

“We are not following the franchise model, but a unique local partnership model,” said Gopala Krishnan, Managing Director, TimePass Media Pvt. Ltd, during an interaction with Sakaal Times.

The company has lined up commitments of over Rs 650 crores for a unique local partnership model that will finance and nurture local entrepreneurs and make them owners of the TimePass Digiplex. As part of the first phase of the project, such cinema halls are being opened in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. “We want to firm up 500 such cinema halls in the next three months' time,” Krishnan said.

The TimePass Digiplex is an Entertainment and Infomedia Center which would have a 3D digital cinema capable of 2D and 3D Bollywood movies, dubbed Hollywood, international and regional movies. Besides, it would have a vocational training centre, gaming arcade and cyber cafe, a fast food restaurant, a retail store and even a bank ATM.

“The business model is simple, while the local partner would have to invest 50 per cent, we would chip in with the rest,” Krishnan said, adding that it can even be started at a rented place – so there are no infrastructure cost. “For example, if you want to start a 50 seater theatre, what you need is just three galas,” he pointed out. His company has created seven formats for such projects – depending on the space and finance.

The vocational training centre too has a unique concept – and it would help the rural youth in personal grooming, hygine, communication skills, personality development and computer literacy.

On the technology front, he said: “Our technology implementation intends to provide a high quality, practical and scalable solution which provides an experience to the Indian audience that has never been seen before. Our technology goal was to design and serve a cinema in small town and rural India with the quality standards of any cinema across the developed western world.”