The 31-year-old lawyer from Bangalore said he missed a work call as a result of the 25 minutes of adverts shown before a screening in 2023.

He brought a consumer dispute against India’s PVR INOX cinema chain, alleging that he suffered “mental agony” and “losses which cannot be calculated in terms of money”, CNN reports.

The screening was advertised as starting at 4.05pm and finishing at 6.30pm, but in fact ended at around 7pm.

The lawyer had scheduled a work call for 6.30pm and was forced to cancel it because of the unexpected delay, he said.

Bangalore’s District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ruled in his favour and ordered PVR INOX to pay him 20,000 rupees (around €210 or £180) in damages and a further 8,000 rupees (£70 or €85) in costs.

Half an hour is “a considerable amount of time to sit idle in the theatre and watch unnecessary ads”, the commission said. “People with tight schedules do not have time to waste.”