The exterior facade of the new Nueplex at Askari IV
Nadeem Mandviwalla, Managing Director of Atrium Cinemas in Saddar — the more affordable option for the masses after Nueplex and the first proper multiplex to come up in Pakistan — tells me via a WhatsApp message that he has no concrete plans to make a new cinema in Karachi. Yet he is still nursing the wounds from when his flagship Nishat Cinema was burnt down during a riot in 2012.
However, Mandviwalla, who is in the United States at the moment, believes that Karachi can house another 100 screens. He is right. Even almost 40 years ago with less than a third of today’s population, Karachi was home to over 130 screens, while only a dozen and a half or so exist today.
Irfan Malik, ARY Film’s Head of Distribution, tells me that ARY is getting into the film exhibition business as well. “We are starting from Karachi with five screens, hopefully early next year, then we will move on to the smaller cities.” ARY’s concentration is initially on major cities, Malik says, and they are locking down worthwhile locations.
“This is not our main business, it is [only] for the overall betterment of the industry,” Irfan tells me. “We plan to develop 50 cinemas in the next two to three years.”
Unlike Nueplex, however, ARY’s upcoming multiplex (its brand name is yet to be decided) is going to be a part of a mall. It is a purpose-built construction, Malik clarifies. “This particular facility, at 5,000 square feet, is specifically made for a cinema. It is not being placed into an existing complex.”
Like Nueplex, the site is situated at main Rashid Minhas Road. “There is a great demand in that area and there is no competition there at the moment,” he says. I asked him about the close proximity of the two sites. “[Nueplex] have their strategy, we have ours, they have their business models, we have ours.” Malik is not able to disclose more at this point before the official announcement, which is still about a year away.
Cinepax Ltd, arguably the largest cinema chain in Pakistan at the moment, also has plans for Karachi. What those plans are, however, nobody knows. The plans have been in the works since at least 2003.