FICCI FRAMES 2013

Sanjay Gaikwad - MD & CEO - UFO Moviez India Ltd

Media and the means of consumption of media have been evolving over the years. Media can be informative, educational or entertainment oriented. Evolution in the means of consumption of various categories of media has largely been driven by technology innovations. Take for example the case of cinema, the key form of entertainment available to the average Indian, technology has had a major impact on the evolution of cinema.. with better equipment during the production and the post-production processes and with the way cinema is exhibited to audiences in theatres.

Digital cinema has made a significant impact, over the past 6 years, on how Indians watch movies in the theatre. Besides enhancing the viewing experience it has significantly grown the business of cinema by taking the first day of a show to small and big cities simultaneously. A movie which was previously screened in just 200-300 theatres is now screened in over 2000 theatres on day one. This has significantly improved the probability of every movie to make money and ensure profitability. However, today transparency is the biggest challenge faced by the Indian film industry. The assumed under declaration of revenue also has an impact on rightful revenue flow to all the stakeholders. The online computerized ticketing platform will address this issue and various state governments are already taking initiatives by incentivizing theatres for installing computerized ticketing systems. Last year has been good for the industry, the box office has grown substantially and the number of movies crossing hundred crore mark is also increasing year by year. The single screens have again started contributing significantly to box office collection. This is because of wider release strategies and content being produced having mass appeal. There have been delays in opening number of multiplex screens, primarily due to the slowness of realty sector which is delaying mall readiness.

In time to come I feel that growth of multiplex screens in metros will slow down and we will see a significant increase in low cost multiplex, what I call as ‘valueplex’ in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Overall the outlook of Indian cinema in coming year is very bright. Along with the box office growth, we will see emergence of new means of consumption, besides the theatrical and satellite, which will be primarily in the form of video-on-demand. The future of media in India is heavily reliant on technology solutions, to enable utilization and monetization of existing infrastructure available, rather than installing new infrastructure which entails long gestation period and eventually becomes unviable in the long run.

 




     

Event details

FICCI FRAMES 2013
March 12 - 14, 2013
The Renaissance Powai, Mumbai, India