What's missing at Sathyam Cinemas. Review on Sathyam Cinemas - Royalpettah - Chennai

So what makes a great multiplex? The experience, the location, the ambiance and amenities and certainly good parking (at least in India, and more so in a place like Chennai where parking at any other cinema is akin to taking a leak in a 5 ml test tube dangling a few feet away) and most of all THE PEOPLE working there.

And we come to our own Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai’s answer to the best the world has to offer (and it certainly will hold its own in terms of design, technology and all that jazz!)

You might be wondering what I’m trying to get at…...and for you to understand, you’ve got to read on....

Let’s start with the parking. It HAS the biggest parking lot in this city for any cinema hall. Which is a good thing. It has a Parking Annex, which is a GREAT idea, and if you’re a regular at the multiplex you’ll know where the Annex is.But sadly, if you’re not a regular, and if you’re going to park there for an evening show, I’ll say your chances of winning the lottery are better.

You’re surely thinking I’m exaggerating, but trust me, get onto Whites road and try to find the Parking Annex when it’s dark. When you do eventually find it, take a look at the Parking Annex sign, and feel free to disagree with me. I’m not saying anymore, but anyone with a IQ north of a single digit will understand why if they apply their mind to the issue.

And if you’re lucky enough to get parking at the multiplex itself, you’ll be hard pressed to ignore the gorillas in uniform. They are rude and if you’re in a situation that needs a resolution, you’ll probably have more luck being elected PM of this country. One can attribute the rudeness to the social background, the ambition and the IQ of the gorillas in uniforms (let’s face the facts here people….if they had better IQ and had any ambition, they would be someplace else). They probably are way better than the average schmuck at any of the other cinemas, but you are now beginning to wonder what the hype about Sathyam cinemas is all about. Surely the management could have spent sometime and effort on working on the service angle, but then it’s just the parking lot. And I’d probably agree with the management on that one…because by the time you’re done parking, you’re in a hurry to get inside to not miss the movie or get the tickets so that you don’t miss the movie (try getting to the parking lot on a holiday or a weekend during the evenings and you’ll be better off getting that dog eared book you’ve been desperately trying to finish and on a bad day or a movie opening night, you’ll probably finish it).

Then you get to the ticketing counter. This is where the Sathyam cinemas experience opens up and your dream of a great cinema experience starts to crumble. Remember the gorillas in uniform at the parking lot? This lot are the chimpanzees in uniform. Which is to say that their IQ is slightly better and they probably have some goals in life (given the demand for tickets for certain movies, well…you get the point)and are rude AND arrogant. I’d again attribute the rudeness to the social background, but now you’re thinking surely the management has spent some time and effort on dealing with people who’re already stressed out after the wonderful parking lot experience and that you’re an exception to the rule, but spend a few seconds to look around, and hey… everyone buying a ticket is equal here. They are getting the same treatment as I was.

And then you get into the multiplex, all glitzy and in glass, leather and chrome and you’re thinking there’s got to be something about this place that makes it a great experience and you go on to the concessions counters. After dealing with all those primates at the parking lot and the ticketing counter, anyone not scowling at you and treating you half decently is a godsend. And you’re now beginning to think that maybe the experience will change now. But lo and behold, they are no different from the people outside.

Arrogance is the order of the day. And reality starts to hit you… It comes because of the brand and the people who manage and run the brand.

And that’s sad. Because Kiran Reddy, the owner is anything but arrogant. He’s as humble as they come and you’ll expect that humility to percolate all the way down to the gorillas at the parking lot, but that’s a tall order for all practical purposes. And the reason that the multiplex is as cool as it looks is because of Kiran Reddy’s vision and his execution team. And I’m sure his vision also did focus on the customer experience. But somewhere along the way, the brand took over and asked Chennai to deal with it. Because the management knows they are the best right now in Chennai and anything they dish out, people are willing to accept. We love it that the management wants to build the coolest looking multiplex this side of Vegas and I’m sure we’re all for it. But maybe the management should think about the poor sod who wants some time off from the daily grind and wants to escape to the multiplex for atleast 3 hours of relaxation

Maybe the experience will get better if the management team is focused on the customer experience. And got a real COO who understood the customer experience the way the common man sees it rather than an expat who spends all his time and effort trying to win the popularity sweepstakes for the most number of Page Three appearances in a week. Let’s face it…he seems to have no cluewhat the Indian experience is all about, and he will not have a clue as to how to deal with problems here. How much ever he tries to become an Indian or experiments with his attempted Indianness, he’ll never understand the Indian psyche, especially of the common man going to the multiplex. And I guess it’s for Kiran Reddy to personally execute his vision of the customer experience, the same way he executed the transformation of Sathyam Cinemas to an uber cool destination in Chennai. Because he’s got a management team that will never ever understand the problems of the common man coming to the multiplex. Be it his brother, his expat COO or his various heads of customer care running the show at the multiplex currently. They will never be able to translate or understand his vision, let alone even be capable of starting to execute on it. Because if they did, I would not have to be writing this and sharing my experience.