‘Once digital platform is in place, we will see more Hollywood films’

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: For several years now, the Indian media & entertainment industry has been talking about the emergence of digital cinema in India. But Ranjit Thakur, CEO of Scrabble Entertainment, say his company is the sole digital cinema provider in India. He tells FE’s Pritha Mitra Dasgupta that all other companies have been using electronic cinema and passing it off as digital. Join the debate. Excerpts from an interview:

What is the core business of Scrabble Entertainment?

Scrabble was formed about a year ago. We are the only 2K DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative)-compliant digital cinema deployment entity in the country. The current format used in cinema is D5 or DI frame, which we convert, encrypt and encode to the 2K platform, which is the higher version or the digital format. We have plans to venture into advertising on digital cinema but not this year.

What kind of research did you do before launching this technology in India?

I have spent much in the US, and we observed that all of India was using electronic cinema done by UFO, Real Image and others that was deemed as digital cinema. The real digital cinema is controlled by a company called Digital Cinema Initiative, which sets standards for the digital cinema worldwide. All the Hollywood studios have come on board on that standard and, therefore, only systems that are DCI-compliant get Hollywood content. Therefore, whatever was there before we entered was the electronic cinema platform. No Hollywood movies made out of the six big studios were being played on UFO or Real Image platform. We provide hardware to the cinema for digital playback at a subsidised cost, and also convert, encrypt & encode the content from a D5 or DI Frame and deliver it to the cinema.

Tell us some of the core advantages of the 2K DCI system?