The Hindu Business Line : `Digital cinema is future of Bollywood'

Mumbai March 27 Mr Raaja Kanwar, Vice-Chairman of UFO Moviez, is convinced that digital cinema is the future of the Indian film industry because it can help plug the leaks in value plaguing Bollywood.

"Our entire aim is to do digital cinema the way we are doing it because it curbs piracy," said Mr Kanwar on the sidelines of FICCI-FRAMES.

He sees piracy as the biggest threat facing the Indian film industry today.

Mr Kanwar was reacting to comments made by Mr Bill Jasper Jr., President and CEO of Dolby Laboratories in the US, during the plenary session on `Cinema of the Future - India Going Digital.'

Mr Jasper Jr. said the jury was still out on whether digital cinema could be a successful business model in the US because of the high costs of digital projection equipment.

UFO has installed 650 digital screens in the country and plans to install another 350 by Diwali this year. By the year-end, the company should have 1,200 screens in operation, Mr Kanwar said.

UFO provides the necessary equipment to theatre owners at a cost of Rs 12-14 lakh per theatre and charges Rs 200 per show for their use.

Break-even soon

Having been in operation for a year-and-a-half, Mr Kanwar expects the company to reach break-even in 2-3 months.

"We are now going after the people who advertise in movie theatres because we are running the content in theatres," he said.

"The advertising done pre-movie and during the interval is what we are now pitching for. We have seeded the market and we should start seeing the results soon."

UFO's strategy has been to focus on single-screen theatres in B cities but is now seeing requests from multiplexes as well.

"We are seeing requests from multiplexes because they are also going into the B cities and a lot of them are looking for the same system in their A centres," Mr Kanwar said.

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