PVR Limited: CSR, Being Inclusive, Spreading Smiles

PVR Limited (PVR), the largest premium film exhibition company in India, with more than 750 screens, launched its Accessible Cinema Program in December 2018. Supported by its top management, PVR developed a culture of social responsibility that went beyond compliance. The program aimed to make PVR’s cinemas accessible to people with disabilities and focused especially on providing content for people with hearing impairment, and visual impairment. PVR rolled out the program to 50 cinemas in the first phase, and the response from patrons was encouraging. However, rolling out the program to the entire chain would involve redesigning existing cinemas to make them accessible and would be operationally and financially challenging. Additionally, the success of the program was dependent upon the willingness of film producers to provide content suitable for visually- and hearing-impaired audiences. Although laws mandated the production of suitable content for people with disabilities, these laws were not consistently enforced. Making movie producers provide suitable content was not going to be easy. In 2019, now that the first phase of the accessibility program was launched, how could the company meet these continuing challenges going forward?

This case is intended for graduate- and executive-level courses focusing on corporate social responsibility. It highlights the motives behind sustainability initiatives and the internal and external challenges faced by organizations that undertake such initiatives. Through the case, students will have the opportunity to differentiate between socially responsible behaviour enacted through compliance (i.e., with laws) and that enacted by choice. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li> Explain the importance of socially responsible behaviour.</li><li>Analyze the reasons for and implications of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.</li><li>Describe the impact of organizational culture on CSR initiatives.</li><li>Outline the importance of industry leadership in CSR initiatives.</li><li> Identify the internal and external challenges faced by companies undertaking CSR initiatives.</li></ul>

• corporate social responsibility, accessible cinema, inclusion