Gurinder Chadha’s Christmas Karma, a contemporary adaptation of Charles Dickens’s nineteenth-century novel A Christmas Carol, is among the international productions that PVR INOX Pictures is distributing in India.
The fantasy musical comedy stars Kunal Nayyar as a Scrooge-like character who meets the three ghosts of Christmas. The cast includes Eva Longoria, Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter and Boy George.
Christmas Karma is among many titles that the PVR INOX Pictures will be bringing to Indian audiences. The slate for 2026 is topped by Josh Safdie’s Oscar-tipped Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as a table tennis player. Over the next few months, PVR INOX Pictures will also release two Sydney Sweeney starrers: the sports biopic Christy and The Housemaid, an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s novel of the same name.
Other potential releases include the Malayalam sports comedy Chatha Pacha: The Ring of Rowdies, the Korean-language Your Letter, Greenland 2: Migration, Onslaught, Above the Below, The Strangers: Chapter 3, Wife & Dog, Switzerland, Fred & Ginger, Lords of War and The Housewife.
Indian audiences are hungry for a diverse spread of cinema, believes Nayana Bijli, Lead: Distribution and Licensing, PVR INOX Limited. The multiplex chain’s tie-ups with companies such as A24, Lionsgate, Anton, Black Bear, FilmNation, Neon, Medialink, and TV Asahi has yielded a steady stream of global titles, Bijli told Scroll.
The company’s focus on distribution, which runs alongside its mainstay exhibition business, is revealing fascinating aspects about movie-going behaviour, Bijli said during an interview. Here are edited excerpts.
What drew you to Gurinder Chadha’s Christmas Karma? It’s been a while since she’s had a film out in India.
That’s one of the big reasons the film appealed to us. There's a lot of different metrics that we use to analyse a film that we want to distribute. One of them is commercial appeal. Another is partners and filmmakers who have resonated with Indian audiences before. Then, it is ensuring that the film has some sort of theme that can work well with Indian audiences.
Christmas Karma ticked all the boxes – it’s got Kunal Nayyar, it’s sort of a musical and is family-oriented, it’s about immigration and identity. Gurinder Chadha is a strong name in the UK and in India, and we thought it could be exciting to work with her on this project.
The box office appears to be dominated by big and noisy films at present. What is the fate of other kinds of releases?
Mid-budget films are working and resonating too. The Indian audience has been receptive to different types of stories.
For example, this past quarter was our biggest. We got about 44 million (four crore and forty lakh) people coming into the cinemas. That’s the highest admissions we’ve seen in the past two years. It’s a combination of big Hindi films but also regional and Hollywood films.
The past has shown us that even the mid-budget film can find its way through the larger tent pole films if it really resonates with people. Take Nuremberg, which was released two weeks. It was a mid-budget film, a niche and historical courtroom drama. Surprisingly, it did very well. It had great legs.
There is an audience for each type of film, and we’re hoping that Christmas Karma will find that audience. We keep our ears to the ground. Although I focus on distribution, I’m always in touch with programming to assess how are our films showcased, what’s bringing people in. In a few days, we can tell how a film is going to do because we have so many resources in place.
There is talk that the theatrical business is dying. What does your experience tell you?
I get that a lot. What I’ve learnt is that each film is its own entity. We don’t know which films resonate with people. We could not predict the films that have resonated with people.
I keep attending markets, which is where we acquire films. There is so much activity happening for the theatrical experience. The producers have really come back and are investing a lot in projects. The line-up is healthy, which makes us very confident as a distributor.
As an audience, Indians enjoy consuming recreationally, and this is only growing. Anime films are something that I have personally worked on. We’ve released about 10 to 12 anime films. I was shocked by the resonance they had with people. I had organised a few fan screenings for Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume a few years ago. People had learnt Japanese in order to speak to the director.
Right now, films like Gustaakh Ishq and Eternity are playing. Eternity is a beautiful film that resonates strongly with people. The Materialists really worked for us, so we invested in Eternity.
India as a country is dynamic. Once we love something, we really love it with all our heart. This drives me to take more risks and acquire more anime films, or Korean films.
What influences theatre-going behaviour – the trailer, social media buzz, or something else altogether?
It’s a combination of factors. The timing of a film’s release is critical. Christmas Karma, Dhurandhar and Avatar are coming in the holiday period, which is an impactful time.
Another thing I am noticing in audience behaviour is that Gen Z is driving a lot of the consumption decisions. They are the primary consumers on social media. When they see something going viral, they follow through on it – you saw this with films like Saiyaara, Mahavatar Narasimha and the Gujarati film Laalo – Krishna Sada Sahaayate. The youth is also driving families, as well as religious communities.
Energy is required to push people to come back into cinemas. The youth play a huge role in the uninhibited consumption of cinema.
A bunch of filmmakers led by Kanu Behl recently released an open letter demanding better show timings and longer release windows for independent films. What is your reaction to the letter?
I have seen the open letter. We are a business. We keep track of what’s working well in cinemas, which film is pulling in admits. We give each film its legs and then we make programming decisions based on how it is resonating with people. If the audience demands a film at a particular time, we decide to showcase it more.
We have also seen a bunch of older films back in cinemas. Do they work with audiences?
Rockstar was one of the most successful re-releases. It was actually nuts. You can’t duplicate the feeling of watching a concert film in a cinema.
When re-releases hit, they really hit. We keep trying to experiment with that understanding. My sister [Niharika Bili] actually looks more into the re-release strategy.
We look at the data – what’s working, what’s topical. It’s about keeping an eye out on what's being consumed and what people are talking about. When it kicks off, it really does kick off. The re-releases of Rockstar and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani are proof that people have an appetite to come back to films that they have already seen.
