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Tag: Usman Fayaz

  • UFO Moviez & Pyramid-Saimira join hands to set up digital cinema chain

    UFO Moviez & Pyramid-Saimira join hands to set up digital cinema chain

    MUMBAI: Digital cinema network UFO Moviez and the Chennai based Pyramid Saimira Theatres Limited (PSTL) have got together for the digitisation of 1000 theatres over the next three years all over India.

    UFO Moviez shall be providing end to end digital cinema solutions for the theatres in the Pyramid Saimira chain at a cost of Rs 1.5 billion.

    Commenting on the deal, UFO India executive director & CEO Sanjay Gaikwad said, “We anticipate that this tie up with Pyramid group will chart the way for the digital revolution happening in the field of cinema exhibition. A single integrated chain of 1000 digital cinemas all over India will provide producers and distributors a unique opportunity for saturated wide spread release in the week of release itself. Worldwide, there is tremendous excitement about this technology which is being hailed as the next great leap in film distribution and exhibition”.

    Elaborating on the agreement, UFO India’s director Usman Fayaz adds, “Pyramid Saimira has tremendous presence in the southern states and are now looking at expanding to other territories in India. This agreement is indeed a step forward in our future plans of creating a truly global network and becoming the world’s undisputed leaders in digital cinema network.”

    “The states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka between themselves have 59 per cent of the cinema halls in India. We expect at least 50 per cent of our conversions to UFO Digital system to come from the south market. Unlike the hindi speaking states, the four southern states are highly compartmentalized as regards film viewing and exhibition in terms of language and we expect a high density of theatres in these states.”

    States PSTL MD P S Saminathan, “PSTL plans to have 2000 screens under its full operation management spread across 1550 locations by the year 2009-2010. The agreement with UFO enables PSTL to reach this target faster since it frees PSTL capital from Plant & Machinery and enables PSTL to lock in more points of presence faster”.

  • ‘Krrish’ strikes digital gold with UFO Moviez digital cinema screens

    ‘Krrish’ strikes digital gold with UFO Moviez digital cinema screens

    MUMBAI: UFO Moviez, the digital cinema network launched by Valuable Media Pvt Ltd. (an Apollo International subsidiary), announced the release of Krrish, the latest blockbuster starring Hrithik Roshan, directed and produced by Filmkraft Productions (India) Pvt. Ltd.

    Krrish went out on 87 UFO screens in the first week and 90 UFO screens in week two. These UFO screens account for 15 per cent of the total number of screens that the film opened with and also marks the biggest ever digital release of a Bollywood blockbuster on a single digital network platform.

    The movie has received one of the biggest openings in the history of Indian cinema – grossing close to Rs 700 million in its first week alone. Krrish opened at theatres across the world with 790 prints, 250 of them in overseas screens alone.

    Also, Krrish was released for global digital screening with 925 cinema screens exhibiting the film worldwide. Thus, the network has made its presence felt by accounting for 10 per cent of the total digital film screens in the world to exhibit Krrish since its release two weeks ago.

    UFO Moviez, spearheaded by founder directors Raaja Kanwar, Sanjay Gaikwad and Usman Fayaz, plans to create the largest chain of digital cinemas houses worldwide by 2007 in India. It is part of Group Apollo’s Media Initiative and was launched by the company’s chairman and managing director O S Kanwar and Yash Chopra in November 2005.

    Having initially set up 500 digital movie halls by August 2006 at an investment of Rs 800 million, UFO plans to scale it up progressively to 2000 cinema halls across the country at a total investment of Rs 3 billion.

    UFO International CEO Aditya Shastri said, “It is has been our privilege to be part of this success and bringing the latest in digital projection technology has surely been an advantage. We are proud of our association with Krrish and remain committed to ensuring pristine quality images with perpetual life with no compromise in quality. With Krrish’s trouble free shows under our belt, we can definitely stake our claim to a stable and rugged technology of digital viewing. The overall response towards digital cinema has been extremely positive and will be a constant source of motivation for us.”