India's Bollywood Opts for Low-Cost Digital Cinema

Makarand writes "While Hollywood is yet to figure out who will pay for the costly $100,000 digital projectors required for the digital roll-out of films, the Mumbai (India) based film Industry (called Bollywood) is settling for cheaper projectors of a bit lesser quality available at one-third the price, to proceed with their digital roll-out. Industry officials call this cheaper version of the digital cinema the 'E-Cinema', in contrast to the 'D-Cinema' which Hollywood is waiting for. Over 1000 films are made each year in India and just 1 film in 12 makes a profit. Transporting conventional celluloid prints to remote towns gives video pirates plenty of time to copy and make prints. Digital cinema will cut down on piracy and help the industry to increase its profits."

Comments

Re:only 1 in 12 makes a profit?

[metlin]

The film industry in India is a little more complicated than that, and even one movie that may turn a profit usually tends to bring in a whole lot of money that would cover the losses of several failed movies.

And relative to Hollywood, the amount invested in Indian movies is far lesser, so that's another reason.

Finally, the Bollywood has a lot of families which have been in the industry for a long time, so money isn't really a problem for a lot of them - they'd rather waste a lot of money making absolutely crappy movies just to launch a new actor or an actress from their family.

I'm not sure

[zappepcs]

that this will cut down on piracy, but it will certainly be interesting to watch what happens. This is one area where DRM would work very well. There are others, of course, but this one application is a good place for DRM and encryption etc.

Besides, all those call center reps need a night out once in a while

Re:I've seen several.

[dancingmad]

Who mods this crap up? I think the moderators today are angry programmers replaced by H1 visa guys.

I'm American born, of Bangladeshi descent and here's the deal. Most Indian movies suck. I would not watch them until very recently. And I learned something: there are some good ones. Most of them are crap.

But most American movies suck too (Stealth, anyone? The Island? Right before I left the country there was not one good movie coming out in theatres).

Until you've seen Lagaan or Monsoon Wedding or Earth (with, like Lagaan, features Aamir Khan, India's Mifune Toshiro, and is based on Bapsi Sidwa's excellent Icecandy Man/Cracking India novel) you've got no real right to malign the entire Indian movie industry.

That's not even mentioning Sajity Roy whose Apu trilogy is a classic of world cinema, of whom my favorite director, Kurosawa Akira said:

"The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly... They can be described as flowing composedly, like a big river. Mr Ray is a wonderful and respectful man. I feel that he is a 'giant' of the movie industry."

"Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon."

Let's not forget the work of Indian disporia: Bend it Like Beckham, the Sixth Sense, and other films which to varying degrees benefitted from Bollywood influence.