Digital movies, How many of you know about it? Options

[Pradeep]

ndtv.com

Its a change that could improve the film industry's bottomlines, the move towards digital films away from celluloid. But its still early days yet as only a small fraction of films in India are released digitally because very few cinema halls have digital projectors.

The world of cinema has changed dramatically since it was born 100 years back. It started with silent movies in 1895, followed by sound in 1926, colour introduced in 1936 and e-cinema was born in 2000. The term e-cinema in the Indian context means conversion of the celluloid format into digital signals which are beamed via satellite to the cinema halls.

But this method of distribution is fairly new in India. More often than not bulky celluloid reels are carried physically to all the cinema halls. Till now over 32 films have been digitally released including Hero, Kal Ho Na Ho, Qayamat with Khakee being the latest one.

Digital cheaper

Digital film prints are almost six times cheaper than the celluloid ones. This could translate into more film prints and greater distribution. So far B&C grade cinema halls have been getting step motherly treatment. They get prints 2-3 weeks after the movie is first released. Since celluloid prints are expensive and limited in number, they are first used at the A grade halls and then passed on to B&C grade halls.

Come 2005 when digital projectors become more common with Bollywood producers optimistic that their revenues would jump over 20 per cent.

Piracy issue

Currently, there are only 90 cinema halls in India with digital projectors but the estimate is 800 such halls by the end of end 2005. This step will raise revenue but will e-cinema be able to sort out the Rs 1700 crore piracy issue? The catch is that in the first run celluloid quality beats digital quality. But celluloid also deteriorates faster than digital prints. So the industry will have to weight the pros and cons before mass conversion to the digital world.