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Hyderabad, Jan 7 (UNI) In a bid to become the country's largest movie theatre chain, Fun Multiplex, part of the Essel group would open 50 family entertainment centres across Andhra Pradesh with an investment of more than Rs 250 crore.

In a statement, Chief Executive Officer Fun Multiplex Atul Goel said ''Andhra Pradesh is an attractive market for cinemas, with its cities having a vibrant multi-lingual audience, offering strong exhibiton potential not only for Telugu movies but also for regional and Hindi movies. It is the market, where we intend to make a deep and long term business investment commitment''.

The USD 5 billion Essel group was planning to transform the entertainment landscape of Andhra Pradesh. After entertaining Andhraites through its Zee channels, Siti cable, Dish TV, the group was now planning to establish multiplexes throughout the state.

Each project would have a multi-screen cinema, shopping complex, food court and gaming zones and the target was to open world class multiplexs in the entire state adding more than 200 cinema screens.

The group was already executing similar projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan with a total investment of approximately Rs 1,000 crore, he added.

The company was one of the leading players in multiplex business with 40 screens operational at 12 locations across India and the company was targeting approximately 175 screens across india by the end of 2008.

UNI