D-Cinema premiers in India with Tamil flick

On Friday Pudhupettai became the first Indian film to be released in D-Cinema format.

On Friday Pudhupettai became the first Indian film to be released in D-Cinema format. This state-of-the-art technology comes to India courtesy Real Image, which revolutionised cinema houses across the world with its ‘Qube Digital Player’.

The D-Cinema format does away with cumbersome and expensive cans of film reels and uses computer hardware and intelligent software to project cinema for the ‘‘ultimate viewing experience’’. ‘‘Your eye will not make out the difference if we improve any further. The quality of the film is so high,’’ points out Jayendra Panchapakesan, director of Real Image.

The Tamil film, starring Dhanush, son-in-law of superstar Rajnikant, and Sonia Agarwal, was completely mastered and encoded in ‘Qubemaster’. It will be released digitally in cinema houses equipped with Qube technology and digital cinema servers.

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It is a different matter that the overdose of violence and certain sexually explicit scenes in the film have evoked disapproval of some ardent Rajni fans. Dhanush is married to Aishwarya, Rajnikant’s elder daughter.

The popular Sathyam Multiplex in Chennai is the first and only cinema house in the country to install the D-Cinema server and projector at par with Hollywood standards for Rs 50 lakh. ‘‘Hollywood Studios came together to set up the Digital Cinema Initiative which specified the D-Cinema standards covering everything from colour gamut and illumination on screen to security standards,’’ Panchapakesan adds.

At present the more economical E-Cinema model, costing around Rs 15 lakh, is popular in theatres across India, particularly those showing large Indian ‘content’. ‘‘It is Hollywood films that require the D-Cinema format,’’ says Panchapakesan, adding that Sathyam Theatres too showed more US films.

The new technology, which promises to treat the audience of Pudhupettai to high-quality action, is expected to boost Dhanush’s sagging career.

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In 2005, Real Image stormed the entertainment industry with its ‘Qube Digital Player’ to release films digitally. The unique feature of the film is the encrypted prints that require a key from the producer for cinemas to project the movie. While it costs Rs 70,000 to make a single celluloid print roll, the digital print costs just Rs 15,000. This is a significant amount considering that Hindi film producers often release up to 750 prints of their movies.