PVR Inox Pictures, the distribution arm of PVR Inox, India’s leading multiplex chain, is treating the new MAMI Independent weekly screening series as a discovery mechanism for national theatrical distribution, and the chain’s distribution arm is poised to roll out outstanding titles highlighted through this program across India.
The series is screened every Wednesday at PVR Lido in Mumbai through a partnership between Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), which runs the Mumbai Film Festival, and PVR Inox, and has seen strong initial attendance since its release on February 25. But PVR Inox Pictures CEO Kamal Gianchandani told Variety that the commercial ambitions run deeper than a single weekly slot. He said the distribution arm is already active in the indie space and has been importing and releasing independent international titles in India for a long time. “PVR Inox Pictures will be responsible for distributing the film and ensuring it gets screened across the country,” he says of the titles that surfaced through the program.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of long-standing frustrations with multiple access among independent filmmakers in India. Gianchandani is adamant against the idea that screen slots remain the central bottleneck. “I don’t think slots are that big of an issue anymore,” he says, citing the size of India’s current complexes. “The challenge is to find films that resonate with Indians and connect with the audience.”
For Gianchandani, the series is partly a long-term audience-building exercise. “By planting the seeds for initiatives like this, we’re kind of whetting the appetite of our customers. We hope that they’ll come back and support more films every time they’re released in theaters,” he says.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, the creative force behind MAMI Independent, filmmaker, director of the Film Heritage Foundation and director of the Mumbai Film Festival, envisions this initiative as the first link in a distribution chain that can ultimately empower filmmakers themselves. He told Variety that the aim is to strengthen regional and independent films and create “a kind of space” that could evolve into a model where “the producers and directors of these independent films themselves become distributors and can distribute and show films throughout the region.” For Dungarpur, this program is decidedly different from the film societies and clubs that have historically been India’s only independent film theaters. “There was no screening space accessible to the public,” he said of the situation before then.
Dungarpur also positions MAMI Independent as the center of the organization’s own reinvention, describing the curatorial mission carried out by a team of three to four programmers as distinctly pan-Indian. “‘MAMI Independent’, according to me, will truly showcase what is the true core of Indian cinema,” he says. “The films are not just from Mumbai, but from different parts of the country where you can find new voices and new films.”
The April 2026 lineup embodies that mission, combining features and short stories across languages such as Ladakhi, Khasi, Kashmiri and Malayalam. All selected titles are from the past five years, including Sundance winner “Nocturnes,” Moscow winner “The Elysian Field,” and Shanghai winner “Victoria.” International programming from Africa, South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia is planned for the coming months.
Expanding the weekly series to other Indian cities and smaller centers is a clear ambition for both Dungarpur and Janchandani, who see India’s recent breakthrough to 10,000 screens as a structural tailwind and an argument that the infrastructure now exists to give independent films the national footprint they have historically been denied.
