The release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has once again put the spotlight on India’s premium cinema infrastructure. While the film has sparked excitement around large-format viewing, it has also highlighted a larger gap: access to premium screens remains limited, particularly outside India’s biggest cities.
As of August 2026, India has approximately 35 operational IMAX screens, 12 EPIQ screens and four Dolby Cinema screens, with premium large-format footprints continuing to expand across major metropolitan and Tier-1 markets.
Meanwhile, for audiences, expectations from the theatrical experience have changed considerably. After the pandemic, viewers have become accustomed to watching high-quality content on large televisions, sophisticated sound systems and streaming platforms. Simply offering a larger screen is no longer enough.
“The post-pandemic audience is no longer comparing the cinema only with another cinema; it is comparing it with the experience available at home. Take Apex, for instance. The film, directed by Baltasar Kormákur and starring Charlize Theron, presents the Australian wilderness on a vast visual canvas. Although it was released on OTT, while watching it, I kept thinking about how exciting it would have been to experience a film like this on an IMAX screen,” said producer Anand Pandit.
He believes this puts greater pressure on cinemas to raise their technical standards. “With large screens and sophisticated sound systems now available at home, theatres have to give audiences a compelling reason to step out. Premium formats can offer scale, picture quality and sound that a home setup cannot easily match. But with the kind of home-projection technology available today, theatres will have to be even more precise in their technical execution to attract audiences, particularly for films designed for a larger canvas,” he added.
Pandit also points to the wider impact on filmmaking. “India has a huge audience for large-scale cinema, but premium-screen infrastructure has not expanded at the same pace. This is not only an exhibition issue; it also affects how filmmakers approach scale. If premium formats become more accessible, filmmakers will have greater confidence to design films around larger screens, sophisticated sound and visual spectacle. A stronger (premium large format) PLF network can benefit audiences, exhibitors and filmmakers alike,” he concluded.
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