Single-screen theatres go tech-savvy to draw audiences

INOX's latest property in Mumbai's Santacruz area has all the usual comforts associated with modern movie theatres: plush seats, Traventino marble, Burma teak and lush carpeting.

The only twist in the plot is that the 18th property in the INOX chain is a single-screen theatre with 420 seats. Didn't everyone say multiplexes are the only way to go?

Cut to Roxy "" the famous movie theatre at Charni Road, Mumbai "" which saw record runs of many Bollywood classics, including India's first talkie Alam Ara. Roxy closed shop in 1993 and was on its way to morphing into yet another multiplex after the original owners sold it. Construction magnate Yusuf Lakdawala, however, reopened Roxy in 2005 as a single-screen theatre.

Lakdawala is a film buff but it wasn't nostalgia alone that prompted him to resist the temptation of converting one of Mumbai's milestones into a multiplex. He knew, and subsequently showed, that even single-screen theatres can make money in India.

There are several other such shining examples "" Regal, Central Plaza, Liberty and Palace "" which have survived alongside multiplexes by keeping pace with time.

In the process, they have been able to get out of the conventional image of Indian cinema halls being stuffy with bug-invested seats, a creaky sound system and a screen sewn-up to hide holes.

Improving the ambience has been the most obvious route of bringing the audience back to single-screen theatres. Cheap digital technology has been the other. Low-cost technology now makes it possible for them to show different movies during the course of a single day, cut distribution costs and beat piracy.

Though the Indianised version of digital cinema, known as the E-cinema, doesn't quite match up to the Hollywood-prescribed D-cinema (Digital Cinema Initiative) standard, the single-screen theatre owners aren't complaining, as it costs almost one-fourth of the Rs 50 lakh required for implementing the superior version.

It's E-cinema which is making it possible for halls in small towns and villages to capture the first-day first-show audience. Also, quality is not a concern unlike film reels, which can deteriorate within a month.

The savings in distribution costs is also phenomenal. Typically, it costs anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,00,000 for a print, but to store the movie in a hard drive, it would cost just Rs 4,000.

The sheer number of single-screen theatres make them an attractive proposition for technology providers. At last count, the country had about 13,000 single screens and will see 425 multiplexes (1753 screens) by December next year.

Take UFO MovieZ, for example. The company has already tied up with around 400 theatre owners and plans to take the total number to 2000 by next year. The procedure is simple: Miles of physical prints of a film is converted into a digital format and the file is transmitted from a central place from where it is transmitted over satellite to any part of the country.

All that the cinema hall owner has to do is to install high-end computers and digital projectors. A single computer can store as many as 12 movies, enabling a theatre owner to show different movies at different points of time within a day.

Those who have been busy writing obituaries for single-screen theatres may have to encounter a twist in the plot. Many single-screen theatres have proved there can be life after death.