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Tag: Kalasa

  • D-Cinema players Pyramid-Saimira & Kalasa in Rs 100 million deal

    MUMBAI: Chennai-based Pyramid-Saimira Group has signed Rs 100 million deal with Kalasa Entertainment Media Private Limited (KEMPL) to install 70 theaters with digital cinema equipment. The installation will be made between September 2005 and July 2006.
     
     

    The deal follows Pyramid-Saimira’s earlier announcement of taking on lease 1000 theaters for digitalisation. The company plans to finish the assignment in three years and primary deadline is to digitalise 150 theaters by September 2006. In April 2005, the company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Taiwan-based Delta Electronics for design, development and sourcing of about 15,000 digital projectors at a cost of about Rs 1.5 billion.
     
     

    KEMPL had recently set up its own GDC encoder in Chennai. This facility is mainly used for those producers who insist to encode their movies in Chennai itself. However, a major chunk of its films are encoded by the Mumbai-based Adlabs. Kalasa presently has a chain of 11 digital theatres in Tamil Nadu. The company uses digital servers, provider by GDC Technology.

    Digital cinema (D-Cinema) is slowly gaining ground as well as investments in India. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital purchased a 70 per cent stake in Adlabs worth US$83 million this year. Meanwhile, private equity fund ICICI Venture invested Rs 380 million rupees ($8.7 million) in PVR Cinemas, and GW Capital put in about Rs 150 million in Shringar Cinemas Ltd. Mumbai-based Adlabs recently commenced operation at its front end-processing lab in Chennai in association with Vijaya Labs to expand its base in southern India.

    “All these activities demonstrated credible corporate and institutional funding entering the entertainment industry heralding new opportunities presenting themselves in the coming years,” states KEMPL CEO Ramesh V Subramaniam.

  • Kalasa to encode movies in-house

    Kalasa to encode movies in-house

    MUMBAI: Chennai-based Kalasa Entertainment Media Private Limited (KEMPL) which is into digital delivery of movies in Tamil Nadu will soon receive its own GDC encoder.

    This was announced by GDC Technology CEO Dr. Chong in Chennai while attending a demonstration on Kalasa’s seventh digital theatre implementation. Singapore-based GDC Technology supplies digital servers to KEMPL.

    “Dr. Chong announced that Kalasa will be receiving its own GDC encoder which will allow us to encode films here in Chennai. This will be delivered and installed by mid-March,” says KEMPL CEO Ramesh V Subramaniam.

    When queried if Kalasa will discontinue its present arrangement with Mumbai-based Adlabs for encoding movies, Subramaniam said it would go on.

    “We will be using the Adlabs service also. The new system is to meet the excess demand and it will be used as a back-up system as well. Producers, who are reluctant to send their film prints out of the state for encoding, can make use of the in-house system,” he said.

    Subramaniam refused to divulge cost details of the new GDC encoder. He said it would be a different version of the GDC encoder Adlabs has been using.

    Kalasa currently has a chain of seven digital theatres in Tamil Nadu. The company, which earlier set a target of 60 digital theatres across Tamil Nadu by June 2005, is currently going slow.

    The demo was also attended by actor-producer Kamal Haasan, Tamil Nadu producer’s council president Thyagarajan and some of the prominent members of the Tamil film fraternity.

    Kamal will be releasing his latest venture Mumbai Express in the digital format. The film will also released in analogue format for theatres without digital projectors

  • Kalasa says effected first simultaneous digital release of Tamil film

    Kalasa says effected first simultaneous digital release of Tamil film

    MUMBAI: Kalasa Entertainment Media Private Limited (KEMPL), the Chennai-based company into digital delivery of movies in the southern states of India, has claimed that it successfully effected its first digital release of a Tamil film simultaneous to the film’s analogue release.
     
     
    According to KEMPL CEO Ramesh V. Subramaniam, for the first time in 12 months some of the Kalasa theatres registered 100 per cent collections due to this first day-first show.

    “This is definitely a major milestone for us, as compared to our earlier digital film releases which were staggered one week after the film’s actual release. This simultaneous release of the movie Bose has been positively noted by producers, distributors and theater owners alike. We expect to see better things to come in the next few months,” raves Subramaniam.

    Subramaniam says while theatres outside Chennai had to wait till 3 pm on the release day (10 October) because of the non-availability of the analogue prints, Bose was released in Kalasa’s theatres as per the schedule.

    “Of particular significance is that the film was ready for theater release in Kalasa’s theaters by 10:30 am on 10 October, 600kms away from Chennai. For the Madurai-Ramnad distributor, the analog prints for his theater centers arrived only at 3pm. This resulted in: The film having its first show outside Chennai only in Kalasa’s theaters, ahead of the theaters in other distribution areas and ahead of other centers within Madurai-Ramnad release area. This allowed us to have two extra shows on the release day because of this earlier availability of prints compared to other theater centers in Madurai-Ramnad,” says Subramaniam.