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Content Tip |
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Write Travel Articles
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Entertainment - Changing
Trends in Chennai, India
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Entertainment! The
connotation of the word has changed considerably even in a conservative
city like Chennai over the last couple of years. Gone are the days,
when a classical music recital or a night out at movies meant
entertainment. Taking its cue from developed IT Hubs like Bangalore or the
Cybercity Hyderabad, Chennai now has everything suiting to the tastes
and people’s likes and choices. Be it music concerts, movie halls,
bowling alleys, go karting, Chennai has it all. Breaking away from the
blues of monotonous chores in the IT industry, these forms of
entertainment have emerged more as a necessity for a lot of youngsters-to
renourish and energize themselves for the upcoming week of heavy work. |
Talk about entertainment, today's segment of population working in
the IT industry need a break and ECR road becomes the most sought choice
for them. On weekends, a drive to Mahabalipuram or Pondicherry is what
they find de-stressing. The number of two wheelers and light weight
vehicles have increased and people prefer that more and they use it for
leisure like pleasure biking on ECR Road. People working in the industry
tell that this is one of the best de-stresser for the kind of work and
toil they go through everyday.
Says, Manoj, a software professional, “Three years back there was nothing
like ECR. After 2002, ECR has developed and now night life has improved a
lot.”
Chennai is changing with the times. The city has a lot of hip hop
places where Gen X can hang out and party late into the nights.
Sathyam Cinemas
turns out to be one of the hep and happening places over the weekend. Be
it a movie or just catching up with friends, the rush here is remarkable.
If you are among those who
do not get ticket for a movie, you can have coffee at Quickies and
plunge into Chinese food at Noodle house, just opposite the theatre.
The rush at cinema halls has led to the trendsetters like INOX and PVR
cinemas eyeing Chennai as a hotspot after Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and
Kolkata.
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INOX has now become a
hot spot in Chennai and with that the cinema lovers have one more
place to go for catching up their favorite movies. Another aspect here is
that, as compared to how cinema halls used to be there before 5 years,
things have changed drastically in the recent past. If you take Sathyam
cinema for example, they are using a lot of new marketing strategies.
These are aimed at reaching out to customers. For example, Sathyam cinema
came up with the concept of “The Q is dead.” Yes, you do not have to stand
in long queues for hours together to get the cinema tickets.
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Get online to
thecinema.in, go to the online booking segment, choose your seat, and
book your ticket. It’s as simple as that. Now, added facilities have come
along the way. Want to snack during the interval or want to munch pop
corns and have a cool glass of coke or a hot sip of coffee? That too right
at the place where you are seated? Sathyam offers that as well. You can
get snack and drink right to the place where you sit. So, you don’t need
to stand in queue for grabbing a munch too!
Also as Sathyam is becoming more, marketing–savvy, they are getting closer
to customer, says Ashwin, a marketing consultant. Ashwin adds on to say,
“You may call it coming of age of "services branding" in Chennai.”
Further, one of the main reasons apart from often-quoted things like
competition is the fact that these businesses are now run by
professionally educated second and third generation entrepreneurs.
Also when you talk about the increase in the snack price, there is this
concept called "margin of indifference". Some brands generally
increase price by price points and that doesn’t make the customers feel
the pinch. For instance, in the past 5 years, the price rise has been 2
rupees to 8 rupees. Ever observed that? As competition is heating up,
theatres have started renovating to offer better and more professional
environment for the cinema lovers.
Events like theatre festival pulls in a lot of young, hep theatre lovers.
Apart from the traditional music, events like the November Fest had a
lot of young crowd enjoying the rapture of fusion music. Bands like
Euphoria, Indian Ocean performed in Chennai too! And yes, Chennai is
gradually shedding the conservative outlook and grooving to the fusion
tracks belted out as the tickets to these concerts sell like hot cakes.
For shoppers, after Spencer Plaza, malls like Citicentre have
become a popular place to hang out. Also, how can one leave Mayajaal with
its different screens, bowling alley and food court? This is one place
which takes you off the city and also offers you diverse entertainment for
their visitors. A new go karting centre is already in place at the
complex. Want to laze at pool side with a drink? Go to a beach resort.
Beach resorts on ECR have become a perfect getaway for weekend. If you are
not among the quiet ones and love loud music and dance and a hardcore
party animal, how about a dance at Pasha, Dublin, Speed or Flames?
The rapid pace at which the number of restaurants is increasing is indeed
worth an observation. The more conventional hotels like Saravana Bhavan
and Murugan Idli shop which is prominent for its exclusive south
Indian cuisine, has been able to sustain and also seen increasing number
of people who come to have different south Indian delicacies. So, has the
development of new joints like Pizza Hut or dhabas affected their
business? Not really! The business of hotels like Saravana Bhavan who has
established a brand name still has people flocking in.
The professionals know what they want. Work for five days and enjoy the
weekend. Also Manoj adds that the three beaches, Marina beach, Besant
Nagar beach and the one at Thiruvanmiyur is having a lot of crowd on
weekends and the whole coastline is being used up. The city is racing far
to development and is not really far behind cities like Bangalore and
Hyderabad in the south.
Contributing Writer :
Sharada Balasubramanian
sharada.balasubramanian@gmail.com
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