The consumer court of Bengaluru has termed the advertisements shown before the start of the film in PVR and Inox cinema halls as a waste of consumers' time. The court ordered that the correct time of the film show be clearly marked on the tickets. The court has termed excessive advertisements as unfair trade practice.

This matter came to light when a consumer Abhishek MR filed a complaint against PVR, BookMyShow and Inox. Abhishek said in his complaint that he went to watch the film 'Sam Bahadur' on 26 December 2023, but he was shown advertisements for 25 minutes before the film started. Due to this delay, he had difficulty going to work after the film. The district consumer forum took into account that BookMyShow cannot be blamed in this case, as this service only does the work of ticket booking and it has no control over the advertisements shown at the time of the film or before it. At the same time, PVR and Inox were found guilty of showing long advertisements during the time allotted for showing the film, which wastes the time of the audience.

The consumer court said that this is a new era, where time is given equal importance as money. Everyone's time is precious, and no one has the right to take advantage of others' time and money. The court also said that the advertisements shown before the start of the film in the theater take up to 25-30 minutes, which is not less in any way. It is difficult for busy people to watch unnecessary advertisements, especially when they come to watch a film with family, their purpose is to relax a bit, not waste time.

Finally, the consumer court ordered PVR and Inox to pay compensation of 20,000 to the complainant for mental distress and inconvenience, as well as to pay the expenses of 8,000 incurred in filing the complaint. Additionally, the court also ordered these cinema hall chains to pay punitive damages of 1 lakh.