The Hindu Business Line : It is no more NEGATIVE

FOR long, the film industry has been crying hoarse over the high finance costs. There are many instances where producers, caught in a quagmire of usurious finances and muscle-men, have been bumped off when they could not repay their debts. Banks are unwilling to lend to an industry the saleability of whose product is always a suspect. As the industry seeks an answer to the problems of reasonable-cost funding, it is possible that technology may come to the industry's rescue.

Enter the world of digital movies, or e-cinema!

After being debated about for years, e-cinema is slowly taking root in India. Recently, one theatre in Chennai (Annai Abirami) acquired a digital projector — the first theatre in South India to do so. Ironically, the owner of the threatre complex, Sv. Rm. `Abirami' Ramanathan, (a technology-buff who was the first in India to introduce Internet-based ticket sales) had himself expressed doubts about the efficacy of digital projections. "But, now the technology has improved so much that I had no hesitation to buy one," he told eWorld. The absence of digital projection capabilities in theatres was the chief impediment to the spreading of e-cinema in India. This is changing.

But first of all, why is digital movie making so critical to the industry?

The reason is the same as why photographers buy expensive digital cameras: no film cost, you can delete a picture if you don't like it, you can edit the picture after it has been taken, you can e-mail a picture to a thousand friends instead of having to make so many copies, you can store thousands of pictures on a small CD... ..

Same holds for digital films. Tremendous cost advantages! Industry experts say that it is possible to make a good movie for under a crore of rupees. Last year, a "cross-over" (English language, Indian setting) movie called Knock, knock, I'm looking to marry was shot with a digital camera, which is claimed to be the first digitally shot movie in India. Anita Udeep, who scripted, directed and produced the movie, calls it an "experimental commercial". It cost only Rs 65 lakh to make the movie.

K.R. Subramanian, Business Head of Prasad Film Laboratories, feels that it is only a matter of time before digital movie making becomes a reality. "I expect it to happen in about three years' time," he told eWorld.

Kamal Haasan

Actor-producer Kamal Haasan, for one, feels that it is possible to make good movies at low costs. "Who prevents you from indulging in frugality?" he posed.

But while the issue whether the possibility of cost reduction will drive e-cinema or not is probably debatable, the cost reduction itself is not under dispute. There are a number of cost advantages in shooting a movie with a digital camera. Some are:

Film costs can be avoided. Today, it costs about Rs 20 lakh for 100,000 feet of film roll. Typically, a movie is made with some 70,000 to 100,000 footage — the director may want a scene shot from 3-4 angles so that he could choose the best of them — before it is edited and brought down to about 14,000 ft, which is the length of a movie displayed. In contrast, shooting with digital camera costs "negligible".

Printing costs only about one-tenth (about Rs 5,000 per print) that of film-based movies.

Because it costs so less to make copies, a producer can make literally hundreds of copies and release the movies in so many centres. This will kill the market for pirated copies, hence collections will improve.

You may ask: if the advantages are so obvious and bountiful, why is it that all the movies are today not made only with digital cameras?

The answer is partly that digital cameras that can bring in the full `depth' in outdoor shots are yet to come in, and partly because the cinema halls do not have digital projectors.

Anita Udeep

Anita Udeep (who, incidentally, is the daughter of the Chairman of the Pentamedia group) says that at today's technology levels, a movie that does not have much outdoor visuals can be shot using digital cameras. Family stories where the action happens indoors are good candidates for digital production. So, the sophistication of digital cameras is one part of the story.

The other part concerns digital projectors. A digital projector today costs about Rs 15 lakh. It may not be big money for a cinema hall owner, but there is this `what-is-in-it-for-me ?' factor.

To this poser, the response from within the industry is varied.

Anita Udeep says that theatres should buy digital projectors because doing that will make low-cost movie production feasible. The benefits of the low cost would be felt across the industry, all down the pipeline. For instance, the ticket price could be less, so more people will come to see a movie.

K.R. Subramanian of Prasad Labs feels that over time, the cost of a projector will come down further. "When I first came across the digital projector around 1997, it cost about Rs 80 lakh," he said. Today, Real Image is offering projectors that cost Rs 15 lakh, at hefty discounts, say industry sources. In course of time, the price could decline further, then the cost of a projector will be a minor issue.

Prices have been coming down. Even sophisticated versions of digital projectors are being offered at better prices. For example, recently Sony unveiled in Los Angeles a prototype projector. The gizmo, based on its `4K' microchip that offers much clearer picture resolution and contrast than the `2K' microchip-based gadgets of competitors like Texas Instruments, is priced at $60,000, or about Rs 27 lakh. Even three years ago, much less sophisticated projectors cost between $100,000 and $150,000.

Back in 2000, Richard Brandt, President of Trans-Lux Theatres, said in an interview that film projection "will be a relic by 2005". He called digital projection "the biggest innovation since sound". Today, while the purchase of digital projectors is yet to happen on a scale consistent with the potential, many theatre owners are talking of buying projectors. Subash Ghai-promoted Mukta Arts Ltd has announced plans to digitise 300-400 theatres in `B' and `C' class towns.

Looks like Brandt's prophecy is coming true.

ramesh@thehindu.co.in

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