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.
