cinepolis are operating at 50 per cent capacity because of lack of multiplexes india has the possibility of opening 100 screens a year but only 2030 per cent of that is happening which is why we are still at 49 screens says milan saini md of cinepolis even players in south india like sathyam cinemas swaroop reddy who runs 27 screens across the south says both viability and growth have been hampered because many properties they had signed have not become operational while players like inox say they are on schedule others agree that with only few malls expected to come up over the next three years things will become tough for the multiplex builders have put on hold a number of large malls across the country due to a rising costs and dwindling demand construction and borrowing costs have risen for developers further the returns from shopping malls are less in comparison with residential properties says anshuman magazine chairman and md cbre south asia developers like rmz ozone landmark embassy property developers and k raheja have also deferred their projects by a year or put them on hold until the retail market revives they are now building 26 lakh squarefeet malls each compared with their earlier plans of over 10 lakh sq ft also many retailers have deferred their expansion plans the average rentals a year ago for a multiplex was around rs 30 per square feet while it is around rs 40 per square feet now the more serious issue is in the smaller towns and b cities where the slowdown has impacted business far more which in turn will affect the plans of multiplexes since they would have liked to tap the potential of these small towns it is a bit of an irony that films are now ready to be released on a wider platform thanks to digitisation efforts but the availability of quality cinemas to screen these films has been impacted by the slow growth of malls