The alliance may entail buying a stake in some of BIG Cinemas' screens.
BIG Cinemas is the exhibition arm of Reliance MediaWorks (RMW), which also has a presence in film services, including motion picture processing, studio facilities, film restoration, equipment rentals, visual effects, animation and post-production.
BIG Cinemas has the largest number of screens in the country, at 256, and 530 worldwide. The next in the country are Inox-Fame with 212 screens, PVR with 162 and Cinemax with 141.
Cinepolis, which started operations in 2009, has screens in six countries of North and South America.
In the US, it has more than 250 cinemas. In India, it has a small presence, with 32 screens at five locations, including Amritsar, Bengaluru, Patna, Amritsar and Surat.
It does not have a presence in the four main metros, though it has announced an ambitious plan to set up 500 screens in 40 cities by 2016 with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore.
According to sources, the talks have been on for the past two months.
"BIG Cinemas is planning to focus on its film and media services business and trying to reduce dependence on the multiplex business. Cinepolis is looking to either buy several key properties or get into a tie-up," said a person familiar with the development.
RMW has already restructured its multiplex business into multiplex and single screens.
Typically, multiplex operators invest Rs 2-2.5 (Rs 20-25 million)
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