26th September 2005

Bhaskar Rao (middle) & Siva Sandalya (right)

UFO (United Film Organizers) is coming up with the concept of exhibiting and distributing movies with digital media (DVD, Fiber Optics and Satellite Transmission) instead of analogue media (Prints) to record, transmit and replay the images. Digital Cinema uses Digital video projectors instead of analogue projectors.

Advantage of Digital Cinema

1. Savings on prints cost: A big budget film is usually released in about 300 cinemas costing approximately Rs. 60,000/- per print. By avoiding the high cost of prints, a much wider release is possible.
2. Saving in handling costs: The considerable handling cost of getting bulky film prints from the labs to the theater and back after the movie-run is also avoided.
3. No last minute print orders: response to demand can be much more efficient.
4. Faster penetration: With the print cost being virtually negligible in the Digital Format, the distributors will be able to release the films in a much greater number of theaters at the very first instance instead of waiting to transfer the prints to the B, C and D centers.
5. Possibility of multi-usage: Multiplexes can share film storage systems so that any of their auditoriums can show the same film quite easily and with no extra cost.
6. Longer print life: The film's quality des not deteriorate with age unlike celluloid which becomes scratched, especially with older projectors used in India. Every show of a movie is as good as the first show.
7. Curb on Piracy: The playback system could allow accurate and secure reporting of playback details to ensure that no unauthorized copies or screening are possible.
8. Bigger promotional budgets: With the numerous savings mentioned above, the Producers, Distributors and Exhibitors shall have funds to spend the same on promotion and publicity of the films
9. Lower breakeven point: With reduction in the investments the distributors will be able to recover their investments faster and hence they shall be able to push the growth of the industry as a whole.
10. Savings in running costs: The manpower and the electricity required to run a digital projection system is about 25% of the traditional system. Also consumables such as Arc lamps used for the traditional projectors will be done away with.

Sudarshan 70mm is the first digital theater in AP
Sudardhan 70mm takes the credit of becoming the 1st digital theater in AP with digital projector installed. Test run is already done and proved to be successful. A demo of the same would be conducted at 11:30 am and 3:30 pm on 29th of September. Around 2000 exhibitors were sent invitation to participate in this demo.

Mr. Bhaskar Rao (Owner of Sudarshan 70mm) said that they are looking forward to have around 500 theaters to get digital projectors installed in 3 months. It costs around 10 lakhs a theater to get it digitalized. There would be additional costs per show.