At the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, Aamir Khan raised a red flag - India may love films, but it lacks the infrastructure to enjoy them.

“There are huge parts of the country without a single theatre,” Aamir said during a session on India’s entertainment future. He emphasized the urgent need to invest in more cinema screens across the nation.

Currently, India has around 10,000 theatres, but that number is shockingly low for a country of over 1.4 billion people. In contrast, the U.S. has 40,000 screens and China boasts 90,000.

“Even among our screens, half are in the South. That leaves only about 5,000 for the rest of India - especially for Hindi films,” Aamir noted.

What’s more surprising? Only 2% of India’s population watches blockbuster films in theatres. The rest 98% either miss out or watch them much later through other platforms.

Aamir cited examples of regions like Konkan that have no theatres at all. “People hear about films online but have no access to actually watch them,” he said.

Shah Rukh Khan, too, echoed the same concern, advocating for cheaper, simpler theatres in small towns to make cinema truly accessible.

To unlock India’s entertainment potential, Aamir believes more screens - and smarter infrastructure - are the real stars we need to invest in.