Even a couple of years ago, Jothi theatre in Guindy was synonymous with c-grade movies and frequented by unruly elements.

But now, with latest audio and video equipment in place, it is a family joint that boasts of first-day-first-show releases of almost all big movies thanks to the digital technology that has changed the entire spectrum of Indian cinema landscape.

Engulfed by the film piracy tsunami of the '90s, many producers and exhibitors went bankrupt and several theatres got transformed into marriage halls, shopping complexes, etc. However, about five years ago, satellite-based digital cinema solution came as a saviour.

With players as UFO Moviez India Ltd and Real Image offering digital infrastructure free-of-cost to theatres and letting them pay only for prints at the cost of Rs 200-250 per show, most exhibitors got a new lease of life.

The rental model that facilitated upgrade without risking any of their own funds saw close to 5,200 of over 9,000 theatres across the country going digital within a span of two years.

A digital solution works like this: First, a 35mm film is converted into digital format with encryption and is made available to theatres via satellites for storage and play. After the producer strikes the deal with theatres through online licensing, the films are allowed a secured play-out.

“While it helped producers and distributors save over 40 per cent of overall costs (including film processing, transportation, etc.), simultaneous release and encrypted technology cut down piracy for theatre-owners,” says Film News Anandan, a noted film historian.

This has also led to the birth of digital films at unimaginably low budgets.

Projectors to soon be things of the ‘glorious’ past ?

It is curtains down for reel projection in cinemas as all the theatres in the textile city have gone digital. Film projection has now become advanced, cost effective and convenient.

However, on the flip side, several of the assistants who help load reels into the projectors lost their jobs, say distributors in the city.

It is nostalgic to the older theatre technicians in the city. Ramasamy.R recounts those days when he, along with three of his other operators sat in the projector room for hours loading and reloading the reels.

“The reels used to weigh 10 kg to 15 kg each and we have had to ensure the intervals between loadings are unnoticeable, the movement should be swift without taking much time.

Earlier we also had to rewind the reels for the subsequent shows, but all those days are gone”, the septuagenarian said.

During the days of his father Ranganathan, who was a veteran projection room operator in the 1960s, the reels were inflammable and when a film runs a hit and the reel has been screened more than 200 times, the reel gets cut and the projection operators had to do a lot of cuts and pastes to keep this intact. Some of the hit movies have had 150-200 cuts and joints, he added.

Those operators who were into manual operation were suddenly being presented with an on-off switch when the digital wave sweeped across the city.

And in some theatres the managers operated from their laptops the films digitally installed on the hard-disk. While some of the operators who have been rendered jobless have migrated to other jobs , in some theatres they have been moved into alternate jobs, Ramasamy added.

On the history of reels, Tirupur Subramani, President of the Theatre Owners Association and General Secretary of Distribution Association, said that reels in cinemas came into existence in 1930s and was used to screen only black and white.

Reels that could screen coloured films came out in 1952 and the polyster reels that could resist fire and that would not wear out because of frequent screenings were out in the 1980s.

Digital cinema in the hard disk has come as a boon as it does not require transporting of the reels. Innumerable number of prints can be taken in few seconds and there is no tension of cuts or wear and tear. Mumbai Express by Kamal Hassan that was short digitally was the first to be screened digitally in 2006.

Digital format much cheaper than the old

Madurai, a semi-urban market, the focal point of tech-savvy Tamil cinema industry in terms of revenue, became part of the evolution from analogue reels to digital format two years ago. Even single-screen theatres now use digital mode of projection.

Catching up with new age entertainment, about 80 per cent of screens in Madurai-Ramanathapuram distribution circle, comprising 6 districts – Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Virudhunagar - has gone for metamorphosis.

Mr R. Ramesh, proprietor of Thangareegal theatre, Madurai, says, “There are about 220 screens in the circle of which over 80 per cent are digitally-enabled.”

In most cases, the cost of digitisation is borne by the equipment supplier for which they take the revenue earned from advertisements screened. “We, the theatre-owners, invest only in erection of DTS system which costs Rs 10 lakh.

All said and done, digitisation is of benefit in the sense that it is long-lasting and power consumption is less by 50 per cent and maintenance is minimal. At the same time, we are able to provide quality viewing experience,” he explains.

An administrator of Big Cinemas which has seven screens altogether in Madurai, Dindigul and Sivakasi, says, “We went for digital format six months ago. Though investment is high in digitisation, it is certainly profitable because for the distributor, its costs only Rs 20,000 per theatre to release a film digitally against Rs 70,000 in conventional print.”

Digitisation being considered a matter of technology upgradation, Thangareegal has advanced to the next level. “We are the first in south TN to have in place 7.1 audio tracks but we are waiting for a film content that will have this advanced audio configuration,” says Mr Ramesh.