Satellite-based digital cinema network UFO Moviez India Ltd (UFO) will invest Rs 150 crore to digitise single screen theatres across India over the next two years, a top company official has said.
“We are investing around Rs 150 crore as capex towards installing 2D technology in 4,000 screens and 3D technology in 1,250 screens across the country over the next two years,” the UFO Moviez India Joint Managing Director, Mr Kapil Agarwal, told PTI here.
Digital cinema has already revolutionised the way films are distributed and exhibited in India. Films are scanned digitally and transmitted directly to theatres via satellite.
This technology eliminates the need for costly and bulky analogue prints and is now ensuring wide spread release of films in digital quality at a fraction of cost, he said.
UFO Moviez has nearly 2,500 2D and 100 3D technology screens today, Mr Agarwal said, adding that the company will raise Rs 150 crore through debt and internal accruals.
UFO Moviez India Ltd (UFO) was founded by Valuable Group in 2005. Global private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, which specialises in investments in media, entertainment, communications and information services, has invested Rs 260 crore in UFO Moviez adding to 3i Group’s significant shareholding in which it had invested around Rs 75 crore in 2007.
UFO Moviez is the single largest networked digital cinema (via satellite) company with approximately around 2,350 installations in India and Nepal. It has built a base outside the metros accounting for several single screen theatres in 1,200 cities, which have got a fresh lease of life.