Zoom’s Arun Mehra takes over as marketing head of Shringar Cinemas

Zoom’s assistant vice-president and head of business development Arun Mehra has moved to Shringar Cinemas as chief marketing officer. The post was vacant following the exit of erstwhile head Deepak Rajnetram in December last year.

Mehra joins at a time when Shringar, which operates the Fame brand of multiplexes, is looking to go public, possibly by April, with the company having filed its Red Herring prospectus in January this year.

Mehra’s task is cut out as the company embarks on an expansion drive outside its stronghold of Mumbai, where it has three properties at Andheri, Malad and Khandivali. Shringar also has a property in Nasik and is aggressively scouting for opportunities down South.

The multiplex industry was in for a surprise during the Union Budget this year, when Finance Minister P. Chidambaram brought the business under the tax net. Multiplexes mushroomed over the last few years on the back of a “tax holiday”, which has now been revoked.

The move, according to analysts, is bound to impact the business, which has been growing rapidly, especially, in the metros.

Coming back to Mehra, he was part of the start-up team that launched Zoom in September 2004, and was instrumental in closing deals in the run-up to the launch.

He has over 12 years of experience in advertising and media having started his career at O&M, Bangalore. After two years, he had moved to Mumbai-based Pineapple Events, and subsequently to MTV Networks. His stint at the Times group was the longest at five years, where he conceptualised and spearheaded marketing initiatives at Times Internet, moving over to Zoom thereafter.

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