Satellite networked digital cinema chain UFO Moviez today said they would digitise 4,000 screens, including over 1,000 in the overseas market, within the next two years.
"We still have around 3,000 theatres in the country which are still not digitised. We will be targeting all of them in the next couple of years," Rajesh Mishra, CEO of UFO Moviez, told reporters here.
With an investment of close to Rs 250-300 crore, they are also targeting the "untapped" Middle-East and Latin American countries through their subsidiary Scrabble Entertainment.
"We already have 800 screens in the oversees market, now we want this number to increase up to 2,000 screens within a year. There is enough scope for digitisation in countries like Egypt, Brazil, Jordan, Israel, etc," Mishra said.
Delivering films via satellite directly to theatres using a unique pay-per-show business model, UFO offers end-to-end digital cinema solutions for both single-screens and multiplexes.
Around 3,500 screens in India use digital cinema installations from UFO.
"Under the old analog system, a cinema hall owner has to buy the print of a film which costs upto Rs 60,000 but under the digital system the maximum cost will not cross Rs 18,000," the UFO official said.
Pointing out that most film producers are now making films and even selling them in the digital format, he said theatre owners across the country would soon be left with no other option but to go digital.
Launched in association with Apollo International, UFO Moviez is the media initiative of the Valuable Group.
UFO has also tied up with Dolby Laboratories to provide high-quality cinematic surround sound to cinema halls.
"This partnership will complete the digital cinema experience by providing digital surround sound, on par with the best facilities in the world," Mishra said.
