India's BIG Cinema embraces opera

BIG Cinemas is going where no Indian exhibitor has gone before - to screen digital operas. Given the very different musical culture of India this is a more significant undertaking than previous opera screenings in Europe and North America or even Japan. I am happy to have played a small part of it and look forwards to seeing what the outcome will be.

From the Economic Times:

BIG Cinemas, an R-ADAG company, has forged an alliance with London-based More2Screen to bring Italian operas to Indian cinemas. Big has entered into a revenue-sharing arrangement with More2Screen, which will involve screening two operas and a concert. More2Screen specialises in providing alternative content programming like operas, sporting events and concerts to theatres that are digitally equipped.

According to Tushar Dhingra, COO, Big Cinemas, the objective has been to provide distinct content. His company was the first multiplex chain to organise a show of Vagina Monologues in India.

Sadly I will not be around to watch the first one myself as I have to head back for SAWA/Cannes Lions and Cinema Expo, but I have seen them in test screenings and they look and sound fantastic. Ad to it an opera-like venue like the gorgeous BIG Metro cinema and it should be quite the night to remember.

Adlab's BIG Cinemas is Exhibitor of the Year at CineAsia 2008

No sooner had Adlabs' exhibition arm been re-branded BIG Cinemas then the news broke that it will be crowned Exhibitor of the Year at this year's CineAsia held in Macau on 9-11 December. We are thrilled on behalf of our colleagues at BIG Cinema who have worked tirelessly to not just make it India's largest cinema chain, but now also one of the most honoured. From THR.com:

Sunshine said that the 2008 edition at the Wynn Hotel and the Macau Tower, set for Dec. 9-11, will feature an advance 3-D screening of the Disney animated comedy "Bolt." The confab's Exhibitor of the Year award will go to Tusha Dhingra, the head of India's Big Cinemas, formerly known as Adlabs.

This comes not long after the cinema chain was named Retailer of the Year award and Best Retailer in Entertainment before that. But this definitely tops both of those achievements. I would like to think that being a digital cinema pioneer in India had a small part to play in the decision underpinning this award.

The global economy may be down but India just had a weekend box office bonanza with the twin hits Golmal Returns and Fashion both playing to full houses. This coming weekend Quantum of Solace will open here (a week before the US, no less) on the largest print release ever for a Hollywood film in India - 600 prints, beating Sony's previous record for Spider-Man 3 (597 prints), with Casino Royal (427 prints) in third place rounding off SPE's hat trick.

The coming weeks will see releases that were pushed back from their original Diwali release slots, so it should be a very happy Q4 for BIG Cinemas and other Indian exhibitors.

This 3D article makes me sound sooo gay

While I am busy preparing the 2K Keynote for this weeks Cinema India Expo, digital 3D intrudes in the form of AccessIT's latest announcement and an article that quotes me about the prospects of 3D for India's digital cinema. AccessIT first.

Almost a year ago at IBC I met with representatives of International Datacasting Corp. and Sensio, showcasing a product for Live 3D, whose USP was that it could be sent down a single HDTV channel. I knew that they had a winner on their hands, so it is no surprise that their technology will be implemented by AccessIT in their digital cinema network. from the press release:

Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. ("AccessIT") (NASDAQ:AIXD) announced today, its plans for the installation of 150 of its leading edge CineLiveSM product in key markets throughout the United States. The technology, which enables the live broadcast to movie theatres of both 2-D and 3-D events such as sports and concerts, will be added to those theaters that are part of AccessIT’s satellite network, all of which are part of the company’s completed 3700 plus screen Phase 1 digital cinema deployment plan. Installations of CineLive will begin immediately in 50 sites and are anticipated to expand to at least 150 by the end of 2008.

The releases will be handled by AIX's alternative content division the Bigger Picture. Carolyn Giardina's take in THR.com is that, "The move underscores a growing interest in this alternative content possibility," and that , "Deployment is set to begin immediately on the first 50 CineLive systems, which will include installation in key markets including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Access IT expects to have at least 150 in place by year's end."

The news brought a smidgen of cheer to AIX's share price, which came dangerously close to touching $2.00 last week, before climbing up to $2.37 in current trading.

Meanwhile 3D fever is spreading to India as well, ahead of talks about it in this week's Cinema India Expo 2008, where I will be presenting a Keynote on 2K Digital Cinema in India. DNA ran a story headlined 'Cricket cheerleaders in 3D? Possible…' that actually pre-empted the AIX announcement. (For those who wonder what 'Cricket cheerleaders' look like, they are American Football cheerleaders flown in for the IPL tournament):

Multiplexes are gearing up for their next leg of digitisation that may see 5,000 3D digital projections being installed by 2009. This means by next year, live-action screenings in multiplexes like IPL matches will promise an altogether new experience for viewers — by taking them as close to the action as is virtually possible.

This will also mean that those live-actions screenings that are hugely popular overseas, such as the U2 Live Latin American concert, may now also enter Indian multiplexes.

Currently, there's only one theatre in the country — Satyam Cinemas in Chennai — that has a 3D cinema or stereoscopic digital cinema projection in place. But by next year, most premier digital cinema chains like Adlabs and PVR will have 3D digital projections installed. Both the companies are currently in talks with digital cinema infrastructure providers like Real Image Technologies for 3D cinema systems.

I got interviewed for the article and got quoted towards the end about the prospects for 3D film productions in India:

No major 3D productions have been announced from India yet. However, Patrick von Sychowski, COO, Adlabs Digital Cinemas, says within the next 1-2 years "there should be some announcements on that front."

When asked if Reliance Big Entertainment has any plans to produce 3D feature films, Sychowski said, "Reliance has been the front-runner in a number of initiatives, so you never know."

Adlabs is part of Reliance ADAG, which acquired Hollywood-based DTS Digital Images, a company that industry observers say will help Reliance Big Entertainment supply technology solutions to the rapidly growing 3D content market.

Then comes the bit where the writer took some creative freedoms in interpreting my comments:

Sychowski said live action 3D films were "about a year or two" away for India and digital animation possibilities in 3D, seem more likely to be exploited. "Shooting in 3D requires two cameras held in close proximity, therefore making it more difficult to shoot SRK's six pack."

I had said that it was more difficult to "shoot Shahrukh Khan" but nothing about his six pack. Seriously. If that had been on my mind it would have been something about the ample charms of Preity Zinta, Bebo or, hell, even Rakhi Savant for that matter.

But I do think that 3D film making will have a considerable impact in India very soon. More about that and 2K at Cinema India Expo. I will post an update after the conference.

Ambani vs. Ambani showdown at the multiplex

It was an open secret that Mukesh Ambani had ambitions and plans to challenge his younger brother Anil Ambani in the multiplex space. But it came as a bit of a bombshell that the person who might implement the ambition is Manmohan Shetty, the man who set up Adlabs Cinemas before it was acquired by Anil's Reliance ADAG. From the Economic Times:

Manmohan Shetty, the founder of Adlabs Films, is likely to team up with Mukesh Ambani. The Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman is believed to be in negotiations with Mr Shetty to get him on board to shape and run a planned country-wide multiplex operation.

The RIL group is looking at about 500 screens across the country, according to persons familiar with the matter. Mr Shetty was, till not very long ago, a key member of ADAG’s entertainment business.

As part of its retail entertainment plan, the RIL Group is simultaneously in advanced talks with Yashraj Films (YRF) to ink an arrangement whereby all YRF films will be released in the planned chain. The partnership is also being cemented across other areas, all of which are part of the RIL’s Group foray into the entertainment business.

The group is in the process of setting up the back end for the proposed foray, largely using fibre optic linkages. According to sources, YRF and Mr Shetty are jointly forming a content company, which will be the primary vendor for the RIL Group’s entertainment venture.

If RIL is considering fibre optic linkage then they are considering digital cinema (again, no surprise, as we knew this from our spies), but this is logical for anyone looking to enter cinema at this late stage. Mr Shetty denies the partnership as does a Yash Raj spokesperson:

Mr Shetty denied the development stating, “There have been no talks or discussions between either Mukesh Ambani or YRF with me. No such deal/deals have been signed by me.”

A highly-placed source within the ADAG group said Mr Shetty was still in the last stages of his exit from ADAG and might not be comfortable talking of future plans.

Sanjeev Kohli, director and CEO Yash Raj Films, also denied being part of the RIL Group’s entertainment plans. “YRF has not signed any deal and we are not aware of developments in the areas that have been mentioned. YRF will certainly share with the media their future plans when they take concrete shape.”

It sure keep life interesting out here in India and we will see who will drink who's multiplex milkshake in the end.

UPDATE 17/05/08: Mr Shetty has directly denied that he is in any discussions with Mukesh. If not Shetty then let's see who he will put in charge of such a major effort.

Adlabs embraces the concept of megaplexes

While I've been impressed by the standard of multiplexes in India, which are as comfy as anything in the UK and US (and the Ebony Lounges are even more luxurious - see above), I've always been puzzled by the fact that a 'multiplex' in India is only four to six screens. This means that even with flexible programming of up to three to four different films per screen each day, the choice is often limited as the dame film tends to jump between screens and when a blockbuster like 'Race', 'Krazzy 4' or the up-coming 'Tashan' play, 80 per cent of screen real estate is booked up.

So welcome news that Adlabs Cinemas (it would be them) are going to pioneer the concept of multiplexes in India, with screen counts in the double digits, which earns it the title of 'mega-plexes'. Here is what the Economic Times had to say about it:

As a part of its new venture, Adlabs will be setting up a number of megaplexes, which would be around 5-6 times larger than the size of a multiplex offering not only multiple screens for films, but also gaming, alternative cinema, sports and others.

"The idea is to create an entertainment destination which will have something for everyone. We will have megaplexes for those looking for entertainment through and beyond films," Adlabs Cinemas COO Tushar Dhingra said.

To begin with, Adlabs will open six megaplexes with each one spread across 1.5 lakh square feet in cities, including Mohali, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. While, the plan for the first phase was at least 12-15 such destinations.

"All the six sites are at different stages of development. The first one is going to be either in Mohali or Hyderabad," Dhingra said without specifying when was the first project expected to be operational.

One of the reasons that there haven't been many 10-15 screen cinemas to date is that the multiplex concept itself is still less than a decade old in India, plus that real estate (reel estate?) is difficult to come by even for a five-screen cinema in places like Mumbai. But my colleagues over at Adlabs Cinemas also face hurdles in cutting through red tape to get permissions to open a regular cinema that make applying for permission for opening a nuclear power station in a place like UK seem like getting permission for a garage extension by comparison.

In other news, Adlabs/Reliance has partnered ImaginAsian, which means that we now have flagship screens in both New York and Los Angeles, though these are only the tip of the activities that this partnership will bring. As reported in The Hollywood Reporter:

ImaginAsian owns such properties as iaTV, iaRadio, Web portal iaLink, New York's ImaginAsian Theater and the ImaginAsian Center in Los Angeles, which offer a diverse range of Asian-inspired programming including comedy and variety shows, drama series, documentaries and features.

"The agreement with ImaginAsian is a nonexclusive media marketing agreement in areas such as advertising sales and content marketing with both parties sharing access to various kinds of programming," Mumbai-based Reliance Big Entertainment senior vp Anil Arjun said Wednesday.

All this and Lowry Digital too - Reliance/Adlabs is on a roll right now. Meanwhile we are not slacking off on the digital cinema side too, but more about that in a future post.

India or China? I know which one I've chosen.

Confession time - prior to coming to work here I never harboured any burning desire to visit India. I'd been in this part of the world when I came to Sri Lanka for my honeymoon (magic), but Bangkok and Hong Kong featured higher on my 'to visit' list than either Delhi or Mumbai.

I was, however, keen to do work with India as far back as my Unique days and even worked on digital cinema test footage of KANK for Adlabs while at Deluxe/Capital FX. (Ask me in person what my then boss told me when I made a long pitch in 2006 about why we should target India). Perhaps I should not be so surprised myself that I ended up here, given what I've been telling others about the Rise of India as a financial and entertainment superpower.

The fact that it is slowly becoming an economic super power was brought home by the recent acquisition by Tata of Jaguar Land Rover and the proposed take over of the Motorola handset business by Videocon. The London Guardian was prompted to publish an article with the headline 'Is This The Indian Century?':

There's a common theme to these Indian takeovers, thinks Bajoria. "For years, globalisation was something the west did to the rest. Now the boot's on the other foot." How should westerners feel about that role reversal? "If I were them I'd be bloody worried." Then Bajoria, who knows the UK so well he can tell you the train times from Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells, tries to think up some consolations, before giving up. "It's a big change. Of course I'd be worried."

A funny thing happened to the world economy this year: it tilted. Pretty much ever since the 60s, America had been the undisputed centre of business. It had the biggest economy; the No 1 economic model (or so the zealots kept telling everyone); the blue-chip banks; the world-beating businesses. Le défiaméricain was how France referred to Ford, IBM and the rest, meaning the American challenge.

Then came last summer and the biggest banking crisis America has had in decades. The economy? Almost certainly in recession. The model? Obviously, no longer so exemplary. The banks? Some of the biggest are being propped up by money from governments in the Middle East and China.

The most interesting trend right now is not the rise of India, but how India is overtaking China amongst the four BRIC territories as a centre of attention for the media and entertainment industries. This came sharply into focus in private discussions I had at the recently concluded FICCI Frames 2008. The growth and attention that the M&E India sectors are getting are understamdable given the 18 to 22 per cent CAGR in the sectors, numbers backed up by the ever excellent Price Waterhouse Cooper report at FICCI.

I spoke to journalists from all three of the trades: Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Screen International. Two of them had sent their Asia correspondents based in Hong Kong and only one had a local report present. Both of the HK correspondents said that their HQ was putting pressure on them to ramp up their India presence and even more the Asia bureau to India. Disillusionment is setting in big time with China. Not only does the country restrict the number of Hollywood films shown in any year to 20, but recently the put a months' long ban on all Hollywood blockbusters. No one is holding their breath for the easing of these restrictions, as reported by the BBC:

China Film's import section is notoriously sluggish in its evaluation and censorship of films. Their choice of films is notoriously confusing and lacks commercial nous.

Moneyspinning blockbusters are often ditched in favour of showing smaller scale films such as Proof of Life, Stepmom and Meet the Parents. Each grossed less than $1m (£690,000) in China.

It is believed that up to six distribution licenses will be issued, with the Shanghai Film and Television Group one of the first.

A US film executive told Variety: "China Film has done a poor job.

"They've been very inefficient in distributing US and Chinese films. They had their chance and they did not deliver."

Hollywood studios have tried to get around this by doing co-productions, but at the moment I was told that Chinese authorities had put 50 co-productions on hold, including the latest Jackie Chan film. This following the withdrawal of notable international cinema exhibitors from the Chinese market.

Yet despite these restrictions US films flourish at the Chinese box office, as reported by Variety:

The Chinese film biz is certainly on a roll. China's B.O. surged 27% last year to $450 million. Two of 2007's top-grossing films, "The Warlords" and "Assembly," were Chinese co-productions, and Chinese films brought in $273 million from overseas sales last year, according to data from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

Meanwhile, foreign, mostly U.S., pics constituted 46% of China's B.O. in 2007. Hollywood movies made $158 million in China, up 38% from the 2006 total. Chinese B.O. for "Transformers" was a boffo $38 million, making it the fourth-largest market in the world for "Transformers" after the U.S., South Korea and the U.K.

If there was unrestricted access to Hollywood content, chances are that it would marginalize Chinese domestic film content to levels of countries like Japan, i.e. closer to 25-35 per cent or less.

This will never happen in India, which will happily export more audio-visual content than it will import for the foreseeable future. And it is not because of any restrictions imposed by the government.

Take the three wide Hollywood releases this week playing at my local Inox cinema:

One Missed Call: 10.50am, 11.15pm
D-Wars: 10am, 11.15pm
The Bucket List: 1.40pm

Notice a trend? If you want to catch them it is early morning or late night at the multiplex. The reason is that Inox (and all other cinema operators) can't cram in enough screenings of popular local hits 123 and Race.

Moreover, if Hindi film producers come across a Hollywood film the like, they will take the concept, give it a desi twist and release the result to greater local box office success than the original. I took great pleasure in giving my US studio colleagues a DVD copy of Indian interpretations of 'their' films at ShoWest. Disney got 'Heyy Babyy' ('Three Men and a Baby'), Sony got 'Partner' ('Hitch') and Universal got 'Saalam-e-Ishq' ('Love, Actually'). If only I'd found a DVD copy of 'Fight Club: Members Only' to give to my friends at Fox.

This is not to show that Indian's are as good (or bad) as their Hollywood counterparts at re-making others' hits, but that Indian culture is more resistant to outside change than Chinese.

This was very well put in an interview with Time Out Mumbai with French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, in connection with his book 'Patterns of Middle Class Consumption in India and China':

There's something in China that's sowing the ground for novelty in the global era. China has questioned its own traditions every 15 to 20 years over the last century. First there was the Communist Revolution, then there Great Leap Forward, then the Cultural Revolution and now capitalism. You don't find in China the kind of interest that you have with history in India. In India, change piles up through a process of accretion, but in China, it comes from wiping out and building up. This tabula rasa syndrome makes it easier for globalisation to take hold in China. In India, the resilience of tradition in culture – music and dance for instance – is strong and therefore India's cinema has been able to digest Hollywood. That doesn't mean that India is not part of the global dynamic. It is very much in it, partly because of the role played by the NRIs, especially those those living in the US – or between India and the US. In face, lifestyles conveyed by the diaspora is largely derivative – it comes from the American way of life and this is converging with the material inclinations of the Chinese middle class too.

That's why Chinese viewers flock in greater number to 'Sex and the City' than Indian ones. So it is not because I don't speak Mandarin or because it is a totalitarian one-party state busily oppressing Tibet that I don't live and work in China. It is because I believe that India faces a brighter future. But I still want to go and visit Hong Kong as a tourist.

Incredible !ndian cinema goes US

No sooner did I write the previous post about the cinema situation in India then the news breaks that my client Adlabs has acquired 200 screen in the US. While it is not the first time an Indian exhibitor buys into the US market, this deal dwarfs the acquisition of FunAsia's four sites in Texas with 17 screens by Pyramia Saimira a few weeks ago. Not only that but to put the size in perspective, Landmark Theatres operates 232 screens in 58 locations, while Muvico has 14 cinemas with a total of 259 screens. Both of these are US exhibition house hold names and so too soon will be Adlabs.

As of yet there is not detailed information about what the locations are. Also, I have not seen coverage yet by either Variety or Hollywood Reporter, which I find perplexing, but maybe they are pre-occupied by the WGA strike. Here is what DNA India has to say about it:

Making its first international foray, Adlabs has entered into multiple agreements with existing theatre owners in the United States to operate some 200 screens.

Precise details on this arrangement have not been made public yet as the deal has been executed by an Adlabs official in charge of developing international operations. The company refrained from divulging details stating it will be made public in due course.

Following the deal, Adlabs will have a footprint across the US covering 28 cities including the key markets in east coast (California is full of Indian techies), midwest and west coast (New York and New Jersey has a substantial Indian population).

These cinema theatres will be showcasing mainstream Hollywood films in addition to movies in the Indian languages viz., of Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

I would expect more details to follow soon. If Pyramid Saimir is prepared to spend $75m to grow from 17 to 75 screens, you can bet that Adlabs will not settle for just 200. Also too soon to talk about digital, other than that I can assure you that whatever they may or may not launch will definitely NOT be e-cinema.

Consider this the first move, with more to come. True to their motto, there's never a dull moment when you are with Adlabs.

Incredible !ndian cinema market

CineAsia is over and while it looked like an interesting programme and first year in Macau, I was unable to attend. What struck me about the details of the events, though, was that there was absolutely nothing about India in the whole three days - unless you count Real Image co-sponsoring a breakfast and the screening of 'Elizabeth: the Golden Age' (directed by Shekhar Kapur).

You might think that I have a thing about India at the moment, but it was Variety that recently began an article with the observation that "India is 'in the midst of a revolution' that will see the fastest theatrical growth in Asia in the coming five years." (Boom time for India's film industry - Country spends $2 billion on movies each year). This is based on a new report by Dodona examining the trends on the Asian sub-continent:

Dodona describes the Indian movie industry as "the largest in the world and one of the most fascinating." Growth is being powered by demographics and an explosion in numbers of multiplexes and digital cinemas.

"On the basis of current plans, in 2011 half of all the screens in the country will have been built or re-equipped within the past five years. Even at its height, the European and North American multiplex boom did not match this scale of investment," report author Katharine Wright said.

Based on my observations on the ground I definitely agree [and an apology to Dodona for previously getting my facts wrong on their Euro digital cinema reports]. But don't take my word for it. Here is what Adlabs and PVR have to say about it in their own words, from a Q&A in moneycontrol.com article ('What are PVR, Adlabs Up to?'), about how they will grow through acquisitions and newly built multiplexes over the coming years:

Q: A few issues the market is quite excited by about - the Adlabs now; one, there is rumour that you could probably looking at Sringar Cinemas for a buy out, is that true?

Venkat Devrajan, CFO, Adlabs Films: Whether it’s organic or inorganic, (we are) ultimately looking at the plan at which Adlabs is today. With 111 screens in the next 24 months, we are looking at at least 400 screens to rollout. So within that space whether any company comes by or we do it on our own as an execution project; at the end of the day it’s number that counts and that is what our plan is.

That's quadrupling the size of India's largest cinema circuit in just two years! If cinema growth like that doesn't take away your breath away, nothing will. And these are not idle boasts. And the growth of the multiplexes is transforming the entire Indian cinema landscape, as this article ('Multiplexes fast gobbling up India's single hall theatres') from The Economic Times makes clear:

From one multiplex in Saket, south Delhi, in 1997 their number today has crossed 400 across the country with about 20,000 screens, redefining the way films are viewed.

PVR Ltd, which brought this concept to India, has a total of 95 screens in 22 multiplexes across India, Fun Cinemas has 50 screens in 11 cities, Inox Leisure Ltd. has 19 multiplexes with 65 screens and Adlabs Cinemas has no less than 100 screens in 22 cities.

"Up to 97 per cent of urban youth prefer to watch movies in multiplexes," says a report recently released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"I can't even recall which was the last film I saw in single screen movie hall. The experience of watching a film in a multiplex compared to a stand-alone cinema hall is beyond comparison," Smriti Singh, a college student, told IANS.

And that's even before we get to digital, whether you are talking about e-cinema or true digital cinema. India is unique in having succeeded in having effectively establishing an alternative standard to DCI (UFO's MPEG-4 and E-City's MPEG-2) for all major releases, and even the odd Hollywood title (Snakes on a Plane, The Messengers). But that's a long posting for next year.

While a lot attention is being lavished on film and exhibition in China, it is easy to forget what a tightly controlled market it is and the risks that Hollywood studios and other Western companies face in dealing with the country. Not only have exhibitors like Warners effectively been forced to withdraw, but now Hollywood films face an un-official three month ban. From Variety:

In its most drastic measure ever against Hollywood, Chinese authorities have banned the release of American pics for at least three months.

Ban began Saturday and will continue until the end of February at least, but Chinese sources say it could continue until May.

Central-government order came from echelons higher up than the State Administration for Film Radio and Television or the Film Bureau, which normally handle movie industry policy and application. Ruling likely emanated within the Propaganda Ministry.

The Asian and Chinese arms of the studios have not been given any release slots in the first two months of 2008.

Unlike China, it is not restrictions or quotas that is keeping Hollywood films' market share low in India but the phenomenal success of the local market Hindi films (aka 'Bollywood'), Tamil, Telugu, Malayam language films and other local Indian film productions. Western films do show, but they just cannot compete with the success of the latest Shah Rukh Khan release. And Hollywood has started to take notice. The Sony produced 'Saawariya' recently outperformed Tom Cruise's 'Lions for Lambs' at the global box office. Not bad for a three-hour song-and-dance adaptation of a Dostoyevsky short story. Incredible !ndia indeed.

Lastly, the vertical integration and emergence of film exhibitors as producers and distributors means that the ground is set for digital cinema in a way that it can never be, because of the enforced separation between cinema owners and the Hollywood studios. The impact of this vertical integration and the emergence of producer-distributor-exhibitor power houses is examined in Glamsham.com's 'Multiplexes and the dawn of a new era':

The trend has also to be seen from the perspective that there would not be any acrimony about sharing of the revenue in the first week when the film is released. This trend is already there in Hollywood and it has slowly started gaining momentum in India. It is a healthy trend, as it would bring in further transparency into the business of filmmaking. The participation on the part of the cinema owners has increased as the investors into the shares of these companies have provided the capital for the same.

Next year I hope to be able to go into more detail about the digital changes taking place and facing India. So for now, Namaste to you all. It's 10pm and I'm off to the Adlabs Metro cinema, "Bollywood's most famous red-carpert theatre" (pictured above), where there is digital work to be done.

My digital cinema perspective on India

I have been in India for one month now and this an incredibly exciting time to be here. The Sensex just crossed 20,000 - it took 20 years for it to pass 10,000 but barely 20 months to double that. Mukesh Ambani has overtaken Bill Gates as the world's richest individual. Were he to re-team with his younger brother Anil (who controls the Reliance ADA Group, which in turn controls Adlabs) - they would be worth more than $100bn between them, easily making them richer than the Walton family. Booming times indeed. And on the digital side things are no less breathtaking.

This past weekend I was asked to take give a presentation and chair a discussion on digital cinema at the India Broadcast Expo 2007. I provided some global numbers from Screen Digest and DCinemToday on where global roll-out stands, as well as getting into the nitty gritty of DCI, compliance, VPF, ODS and more. We then had a very stimulating panel discussion with the top names from India's D-Cinema and e-cinema sectors. A very sharp journalist from IndianTelevision.com was there, asked pertinent questions and had published an article on the event the same evening:

Cinemeta Entertainment CEO Raj Grover said, "We intend to get into metros and tier-I, tier-II cities across the country. A chain of about 50 cinemas is in the pipeline across Gujarat, wherein we are acquiring single theatres, thus taking up their complete management rights. Currently, we are in the process of choosing the right format and standard for projection."

Real Image which started off as audio and post-production has also become a significant player in South India, thanks to their Qube technology. Director Senthil Kumar said, "Although digital cinema is in the transition phase, it is driving local and national advertisers to this medium. It's helping them target audiences better. This meanwhile, is also helping us evolve a territory specific business models like we have done in Tamil Nadu."

UFO Moviez CTO Makarand Karanjkar however adopted a different stance. He said that UFO is an infrastructure provider and a facilitator between the distributor and exhibitor to make their business viable, cutting down costs significantly for them. "We figured out the business model first and then made the technology work for us," he said.

I couldn't have summarized it better myself. A lot of the discussion centered on India's e-cinema model, though Karanjkar insisted that it was 'digital cinema' as far as they were concerned and that the quality and security was on par with what DCI had come up with. (I had to bite my tongue at this and other occasions, as my main task was to moderate the discussion.)

Equally interesting is the fact that given the severe under-screening of India, IBE Expo convenor Anil Chopra predicted that we could see the growth of 100,000 new cinema screens to meet demand and that digital (e- or d-) had the potential to 'leap frog' by going straight for digital distribution.

There can also be no denying the success that UFO Moviez (not to be confused with the unidentified flying object spotted over Kolkata this Monday morning) has made of e-cinema in India. The Economic Times of India has a long article ('Reviving cinema halls') that gives a good perspective on just what they have achieved, noting that:

Digital prints have played a huge part in the growth of the industry and is one of the critical reasons that most of the big ticket movies can release with a bigger print run., While so far, UFO’s biggest print run had been 360 prints with Heyy Babby, Om Shanti Om (OSO) and Saawairya are expected to cross that. “Between the two we should release at least 650-700 prints if not more.

Though the theatres get booked only a few days before the release, OSO will be at least 350-400 and could go up to 500,” adds Mishra. From the 300 released last Diwali between Don and Janneman, it’s a big jump. Like Mishra points out, the fact is that digital prints are not only matching the analogue ones, but at times crossing them as well.

So while we laud what Christie/AIX has done to kick start digital cinema in the West, in India digital distribution of film to cinemas is already overtaking 35mm! Not just that, but in a more adulating article e-cinema is even credit with saving the environment. With a title like 'Digital cinema reduces carbon dioxide emissions, too' you would expect the interview with Raaja Kanwar to highlight the green credentials of UFO, and it does:

Digital cinema’s contribution is not merely restricted to commercial benefits. It has brought about long lasting positive impact on the environment as a whole. The technical solution has helped the Indian film industry curb environmental pollution.

Indeed, if you put up a dim image on a 50 foot screen with a single-chip DLP projector from Panasonic you are not going to consume as much power as a 35mm projector or a 2K DLP Cinema projector. But you are also not giving the audience a true quality experience.

These efforts have not gone entirely un-noticed in the West. MPAA's Dan Glickman is in town and lauded the efforts of India to stamp out piracy. As reported in the Hollywood Reporter:

Glickman lauded recent anti-piracy developments in India, such as the adoption of a resolution in the state of Maharashtra that makes video piracy an offense that carries a minimum sentence, but he added that "much more needs to be done."

According to MPA data, India's domestic industry suffers more from piracy here than do imported films, which account for just 20% of pirated goods. Despite the recent growth in theatrical revenue for Indian films overseas, MPA data indicates that in the U.S., home video revenue for Indian films has declined by 75% over the past three years because of rampant piracy.

Later in the article gets around to digital cinema, or the UFO version of it, noting that:

India also is home to the world's largest network of digital cinemas. Mumbai-based UFO Moviez operates more than 1,000 screens, but most are not compliant with the Hollywood studios' Digital Cinema Initiative guidelines. Dubbed versions of Hollywood titles therefore are not released on this system, given that there are only six DCI-compliant screens in India.

Instead of writing "most are not compliant" with DCI guidelines they should have written 'none are compliant' because they distribute in MPEG-4 format and only Sathyam has six 2K digital cinema screens in Chennai. On the tricky issue of why the Sony Pictures-produced Saawariya is being released on 250+ non-DCI screens, Glickman is forced to cop out with a "This is a commercial decision by the studio, and we really can't comment on this."

The reason is because there is no true 2K alternative in India. Yet. But that will change.

Yesterday the founder of Adlabs, Manmohan Shetty and his daughter Pooja, announced that they were stepping down two years after selling a controlling stake to Reliance. That's the very rich company I mentioned at the start of this blog. They don't enter a market unless it is to be Number One. They have already made Adlabs India's largest cinema chain. Next on their agenda is digital. Like I said, these are very interesting times to be here.

India rips into Hollywood's d-cinema standards

It's not often that you get an out-and-out assult on Hollywood standard-setting efforts for digital cinema. Mostly it is low key grumblings, punctured by the occasional inane idea of a 'French' or 'European' digital cinema standard. But it seems like the Indians, who have as much if not more experience in distributing films digitally to cinemas as Hollywood, have had it up to here according to this article in Variety:

Rajaa Kanwar, vice chairman of UFO Moviez and chairman of the Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) digital entertainment forum, described standards put together by the Digital Cinema Initiative's committee of Hollywood studios and vendors as "rigid, unrealistic" and "not appropriate" to many territories, including India.

Kanwar described a series of myths he ascribed to DCI and d-cinema systems that claim to be DCI compliant.

He said that theater chains do not generally invest in technology; that distributors are fragmented and not able to manage technology themselves; that interoperability is not a reality; and that the human eye is largely unable to detect the higher image quality delivered by DCI standards.

Kanwar said that the cost of a DCI -compliant d-cinema system is about $125,000; his company charges theaters as little as $4.60 per screening for 2K projection equipment.

UFO Moviez provides turnkey digital cinema systems that are typically leased or rented by multiplex operators. Antipiracy protection comes from satellite delivery of movies that requires no human intervention.

Company has e-cinema installations in 625 theaters in India and is selling its system in Singapore, Malaysia and Europe.

Bill Jasper Jr., prexy, director and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, admitted that he had not understood the DCI's decision to switch from MPEG to JPEG2000 standards for video compression. (JPEG2000 is a standard derived from technology for still images.)

He suggested problems ahead for the DCI as studios want to do away with the virtual print fee, which may be as high as $1,000, in a few years. But he said that 3-D cinema, made more possible by 4K DCI-compliant technology, was popular with auds and is an "effective antipiracy tool."

As Walt Ordway is always at pains to stress, a) DCI is not a 'standard' but a set of specifications, and b) it describes a baseline, but is open to expansions and extensions. Before you knock the Indians, remember that they are the only ones to have made e-cinema possible on a big scale without needing Hollywoods virtual print fee (VPF) solution. I'm also surprised that Jasper should not have understood the switch from MPEG to JPEG (even though he worked for an audio company at the time) and I'm sure that he is misquoted in linking digital 3D and 4K.