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Tag: 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.

  • Kalasa Ent. allies Mukta Adlabs for e-cinema in South

    Kalasa Ent. allies Mukta Adlabs for e-cinema in South

    MUMBAI: Mukta Adlabs Digital Exhibition has joined hands with Chennai-based Kalasa Entertainment Media Private Limited (KEMPL) for digital delivery of movies in the southern states of India.

    Mukta Adlabs, the joint venture between Adlabs Films and Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts, already has a presence in other parts of the country. With this alliance, the joint venture plans to establish a foothold in the strong southern movie market.

    Mukta Adlabs will take care of the digital conversion of the southern movies as part of the operational partnership with KEMPL. The JV will also supply e-cinema audio interface systems and provide maintenance support to KEMPL. Singapore-headquartered GDC Technology will provide the digital servers.

    KEMPL, which launched its digital cinema initiative in June, plans to double its digital cinema installations to 10 in Tamil Nadu within a month. The company expects to install 65 theaters and release about 30 films in digital format in its first year of operations.

    KEMPL has received $ 0.5 million from Sat Pal Khattar, a founding partner of Singapore-based law firm Khattar Wong and Partners. “We are expecting another $ 2.5 million from foreign investors in the next two months,” says KEMPL CEO Ramesh V Subramaniam. Indian venture capitalists from Mumbai and Bangalore have also showed interest in investing in digital cinema, he adds.
    One of the theatres in Tamil Nadu where KEMPL has installed digital cinema system

    KEMPL prefers ‘A2’ class theatres (which fall between A and B class theatres) in South India, while Mukta Adlabs has been targeting the ‘B’ and ‘C’ class theatres in other parts of the country for a digital cinema roll out.

    “Ticket rates in the A2 theatres range between Rs 15 – Rs 25 while in ‘A’ class theatres it is between Rs 25 – Rs 40. We are not targeting theatres in the ‘C’ category as ticket rates in such centres are very low. Recovering costs take a longer time,” says Subramaniam.

    Kalasa, set up in early 1998, has been specialising on all aspects of film sound recording and audio post-production. The company was rechristened as Kalasa Entertainment Media Private Limited (KEMPL) in April 2004 as it got into distribution of movies in the digital format.