This is not like a one-quarter hit; it will take time: PVR chief Ajay Bijli

At a cinema level, we haven't laid off people but senior employees have taken a 50 per cent salary cut while others have taken a cut anywhere between 10 and 25 per cent, the chairman said

For the first time in four years, film ticket sales grew in 2019. Just as the industry was savouring it, came the coronavirus. Cinema chains were among the first to shut down. At 845 screens across India, the Rs 3,118-crore PVR Cinemas is the country’s largest theatre chain. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to Chairman Ajay Bijli on what social distancing means to an industry that depends on bringing people together. Edited excerpts:
 

What was your first reaction when the coronavirus hit?
 

I was doing a course in Harvard at the end of December when I first heard the news about a