Ranchi, Jharkhand | June 2026
India goes to the movies in enormous numbers. With one of the largest film industries in the world by output and an audience base that cuts across language, class, and geography, the country’s theatrical entertainment market remains a category unlike almost any other. Yet for decades, the physical infrastructure of cinema the screens, the sound systems, the comfortable halls has been distributed with striking inequality. Metropolitan India has multiplexes on every other corner. Hundreds of millions of Indians in smaller cities and towns have been left with ageing single screens or nothing at all. Eylex Cinemas was founded to fix that problem, and its newly launched franchise programme is the most concrete expression of that ambition to date.
The Infrastructure Gap That Defines the Opportunity
The disparity in cinema screen density between India’s top metros and its second and third-tier cities is significant. While cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad are reasonably well-served by organised multiplex chains, the picture changes dramatically once you move to cities with populations below two million. Many of these cities—some growing at remarkable rates on the back of industrial expansion, improved connectivity, and rising incomes—simply do not have access to the kind of high-quality cinema infrastructure their residents are increasingly demanding.
This is not a niche observation. It is a structural feature of the Indian entertainment market that investors, distributors, and exhibitors have been discussing for years. What has been missing is a credible operator with the track record, the systems, and the risk appetite to move into these markets at scale. Eylex Cinemas, which has been doing exactly this since 2007, is now making that capability available to franchise partners.
Eighteen Years of Operating Where Others Wouldn’t
Eylex Cinemas’ story is, in many ways, a story about institutional patience. When the company opened its first multiplex in Ranchi in 2007—the first of its kind in Jharkhand—it entered a market that the established cinema chains had largely passed over. The risk was real. So was the reward. Audiences responded enthusiastically, the business grew, and Eylex expanded methodically into adjacent markets: Jamshedpur, Deoghar, Muzaffarpur, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Asansol, and Silchar.
Today the company operates 24 screens across this geography, serving daily audiences across Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, and Assam. Each of these locations has generated operational learnings that are now embedded into the franchise programme. The company knows what a cinema launch looks like in a Tier 2 city. It knows how to price tickets for markets where value sensitivity is high. It knows what equipment configurations deliver quality without unnecessary capital expenditure. These insights cannot be purchased—they have to be earned through years of operation, and Eylex has earned them.
Three Formats Built for India’s Market Reality
A critical design decision in the Eylex franchise model is the rejection of a single standardised format. The company has developed three distinct cinema configurations, each calibrated to a specific market context. This matters enormously in a country as economically diverse as India, where a cinema that thrives in a growing industrial town in Jharkhand may be completely mismatched to the expectations of audiences in a major metropolitan centre—and vice versa.
The entry-level format is engineered for smaller cities and towns, prioritising operational efficiency, affordable ticketing, and strong community integration. The mid-tier format addresses larger Tier 2 cities and growing urban centres, offering a premium experience without the capital intensity of a luxury multiplex. The flagship format targets major city markets where audiences expect the highest standards of presentation, comfort, and technology. Franchise partners select the format appropriate to their location and can scale between tiers as their market evolves.
What the Franchise Model Actually Offers
Beyond the format flexibility, the Eylex franchise programme is distinguished by the depth of its partner support. Prospective franchisees receive assistance with site evaluation and theatre design, procurement of audiovisual and operational equipment, comprehensive staff training programmes, and a marketing playbook developed from the brand’s own experience across multiple city launches. Critically, franchise partners also benefit from Eylex’s established relationships with film distributors—a logistical advantage that independent cinema operators often underestimate until they encounter it as a challenge.
The company has been deliberate in framing this as a long-term partnership rather than a transactional licensing arrangement. Franchise partners are not handed a manual and left to figure it out; they are integrated into an operational network with ongoing access to guidance, systems, and the collective knowledge of a chain that has been running multiplexes in non-metro India for nearly two decades.
The Moment to Act Is Now
Several forces are converging to make the current period particularly advantageous for cinema franchise entry. India’s box office has been showing consistent strength, driven by a diverse content slate spanning big-budget Hindi productions, high-performing regional films, and an increasing number of international titles finding Indian theatrical audiences. The post-pandemic recovery in cinema attendance has been more durable than many predicted, underlining the resilience of the theatrical experience as a social activity.
At the same time, urbanisation and income growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 India are accelerating. The entrepreneurs best positioned to capitalise on this are those who are already embedded in these communities—who understand the local market, have existing business relationships, and can bring operational energy to a new venture backed by a proven brand. Eylex Cinemas’ franchise programme is designed precisely for this profile of investor. Territories are limited and will be awarded on a selective basis. For those who have been looking for a compelling, differentiated investment in India’s entertainment economy, the conversation with Eylex Cinemas is one worth having.
About Eylex Cinemas
Eylex Cinemas (Eylex Films Pvt. Ltd.) is a leading multiplex and single-screen cinema chain headquartered in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Founded by Akash Jalan in 2007, the company pioneered the multiplex model in Eastern India and currently operates 24 screens across Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, and West Bengal. Eylex Cinemas is actively expanding its national footprint through a structured cinema franchise programme. For enquiries, visit eylex.com/franchise.
Media Contact
Website: eylex.com/franchise
Mail: franchise@eylex.com
