Avinash Entertainment Complex fighting tough times

- seeking to restore status to urban cinema

Businessman Harry Panday is fervently hoping that come August, the Avinash Entertainment Complex will be among the busiest facilities of its kind in the country.

He is in the process of pumping millions of dollars into a facility, which, by his own admission, is still performing below his own expectations.

Situated at Lots A&B Water street Georgetown the Complex had initially attracted public attention primarily because it was felt to be much too close to the much-maligned ‘Tiger Bay’ area. Panday believes that one of the accomplishments of the Complex is that it may well have been able to at least partially remove the cloud which, for decades, has hung over one of Georgetown’s northernmost residential areas.

Still, he appears unable to put his finger on the reasons why, a year and a half after the first facility, the cinema complex, opened, the enterprise as a whole is still to catch on.

The three cinemas, which opened in December 2012—Cara Nash and a 3-D facility—together accommodate 560 patrons. There were brief halcyon days when ticket sales were 90 and 100 per cent. That was prior to the commissioning of the Princess Hotel cinemas the following year. After that ticket sales dipped disastrously. Today, only around 39 per cent of the seats are filled.

Fighting tough times: The Avinash Complex
Fighting tough times: The Avinash Complex
Still to catch on
Still to catch on

Panday makes no bones about the effect the advent of the Princess facility had on his own cinema. He believes that part of it had to do with the fact that the Princess had invested in offering current movies. His own customers have to wait for a while longer for those same movies. His prices were better but that didn’t matter. The local cinema culture had changed and his middle class customers simply deserted him for what they considered to be a more attractive facility. These days, working class patrons settle for a handful of inexpensive DVDs and a comfortable living room chair.

The Complex endures through its travails. Panday reflects on his investment in creating an enhanced environment in what was considered a downtrodden community. The Complex has parking and security, but up until now that does not appear to have endeared it to a larger clientele.

There is the Mall, a quiet facility with about twenty stalls and a collection of vendors who appear optimistic that change for the better will come. Perhaps the transformation will come through Flavours, a Mexican/Western restaurant that appears to be catching on quickly following its opening on June 14.

Panday is not one to conceal his disappointment over the fact that the Complex – particularly the cinema – is yet to secure a generous slice of the mainstream entertainment market.

Still, he says he is light years away from going under. A planned August entertainment blitz is another throw of the dice. He is importing the popular Jamaican entertainer Lady Saw and as the month progresses other local and regional entertainers will be pressed into service. He is banking on customer retention that will extend way beyond the August blitz. He hopes to see the cinema re-populated and the crowds patronising the Mall. As of now he does not appear to be contemplating another option.