The Digital Revolution has taken by the film industry by storm. With Kamal Haasan’s ‘Mumbai Express’ much awaited for its entirety in digital format, many other ventures are also being planned as digital production. Nothing can replace the effect of a complete digital creation.

Picture and sound clarity that elevates the audience to a different plane in this kind of format, it also reduces the cost of production by nearly 50 %. In digital cinema, investing in Dolby decoders, that until recently provided the digital surround sound, is not necessary as surround playback capability is enabled. This can be done with minimal investment. Apart from that it comes with another major benefit factor, that of preventing copying into VCD format. This is will be a big blow to VCD pirates. With its 128-bit encryption, it cannot be tampered to make illegal VCDs.

But the loop is not many of the cinema halls are equipped with digital theatres. Speaking at a demonstration at Sathyam Theatre, Kamal Haasan said, “There is no question about the quality in digital shooting, but we do not have enough digital theatres in the State. And now additionally I have to make analogue prints to release ‘Mumbai Express’ in theatres without the digital projectors.”

But very soon we can expect a total digital revamp of theatres in the State. With GDC the Company behind this technology having installed about two hundred projectors in theatres throughout the country, and with most cinema hall owners interested in the same, very soon we can hope all the theatres to be equipped with the digital projectors that will transcend movie watching into an experience by itself.