B'wood dumps reel for real, goes digi

DIGITALLY ENHANCED: Vipul Shah went digital, increased the no. of prints for Namaste London.

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Mumbai: The magic of cinema has long relied on the age-old reel cans. However, as Bollywood goes digital, reel spools and cans could soon become a thing of the past.

Screening a film is now just a click away.

“The cost of the print is about Rs 70,000. So when you go for simultaneous release, you are saving the cost of 70,000 times the number of prints that you are launching as far as producer is concerned. That’s a direct saving to him which he can put into a better quality product,” says Vice-Chairman of UFO Moviez, Raaja Kanwar.

The market leader in this segment is UFO movies started out sometime back are have now set up as many as 650 digital screens across the country.

As film business becomes a matter of first weekend collections, many like producer-director Vipul Shah are opting for digital release as well.

By going digital, Shah has managed to increase the number of prints of his last release Namaste London by 250.

“The wider we can release the film better it is for us. And digital cinema is helping the indian cinema in big way because there is no additional cost involved in showing the film in those theatres. At the same time, the revenue generation goes up. It is simply great,” says Shah.

The big gainers are the small cities that now get to see the films on the release date itself instead of waiting for two to three weeks for the prints to arrive. Thus, it cuts down on piracy as well.

But one thing that digital can’t do is weave those nostalgic moments that the sound of spooling reels created.