dhana100

CHENNAI: Tamil megastar Rajnikanth has broken his silence on his new film ‘Chandramukhi’ and why he chose to put in cold storage ‘Jakkubhai’.

In a brief interaction with the media on Friday, after attending the 77th birthday celebrations of late Sivaji Ganesan here, he hoped that ‘Chandramukhi’ would prove a turning point both for him and its producers, the Sivaji Productions, a film company managed by the Sivaji clan.

For him it would be a chance to revive his magic after the failure of ‘Baba’, and for Sivaji Productions, which is returning to production after a long gap of 12 years.

‘‘I’m honoured to star in a film to be produced under the banner of a company associated with my idol, the late Sivaji, when it is commemorating its golden jubilee. I’m sure ‘Chandramukhi’ would be an unprecedented hit in the history of Tamil films,’’ Rajni said.

The movie, to be directed by Vasu, would also have Prabhu in its cast. Describing his character in ‘Chandramukhi’ as challenging, Rajni said: ‘‘ this would be another ‘Padiayappa’ (a blockbuster) for me. And I am doing a very different character in this.’’

Refusing to elaborate on the character itself, Rajni said: ‘‘it is suspense, but I can tell you that Tamil cinema has never had a story line like this. I never accept movies easily unless I like the story. This really impressed me and so I accepted it immediately. You will see a different Rajni in this movie.’’

He also denied that he had given up ‘Jakkubhai,’ for which the muhurat was done a month ago. He explained that since he was not satisfied with its screenplay, he decided to leave it on the back burner for now but that he would go back to it after ‘Chandramukhi’ was completed.

He also joined the rest of the Tamil film world in commending Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for her recent gestures favouring the industry.

He said: ‘‘She has done lot to us and we are all indebted to her for our entire life-time.’’Real Image Media Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is pleased to announce the completion of 100 days of digital screening of Sivaji Productions’ Chandramukhi on the Qube Digital Cinema Player, a high quality, powerful, reliable and flexible digital cinema solution developed by Real Image.

This is the very first time in the history of Indian cinema that a movie has been successfully and continuously screened digitally for 100 days in a theatre. Real Image’s Qube Cinema Player is the only server in the Indian digital cinema sphere that has been operated for so many digital shows of a movie on a continuous basis.

Says Senthil Kumar, Director, Real Image, “With this successful digital screening at four theatres across the state of Tamil Nadu – Abirami in Chennai, Abirami in Erode, Ananda in Pondichery and Guru in Madurai – Real Image has established that digital cinema in India is no more an experiment but the reality for the film industry. This achievement owes its success to the confidence placed in Real Image by Producers, Directors, Exhibitors and Cinematographers who have trusted Real Image to deliver only the best in quality. Quality is something that Real Image has never compromised on and we will always endeavour to live up to the trust placed in us by the film community. Without all their support, this envious achievement would not have been possible and we wish to take this opportunity to thank every one of them for supporting this pioneering initiative.”

The theoretical benefits of digital cinema to the industry are well documented and understood by all the stakeholders; but it required a practical demonstration of the same to the demanding quality standards that the industry is used to, especially in terms of visual quality matching that of film and reliability of equipment, areas that Real Image has never compromised on despite the higher costs and difficulties in procuring content that it had to face to promote the concept.

The industry will never embrace any technology or process that does not enable exhibition of content in the creative form conceived by the creators and most certainly will not compromise on visual quality. Despite pressures to make available content of lower quality like other players in this industry have done, Real Image has steadfastly stood its ground, converting a film to the digital format in high definition only from the negative or inter-positive. This is the only method of digital conversion that allows complete control over the colour grading and contrast and enables the digital version to match or improve upon the quality of the film print as envisaged by the cinematographer and director. The alternate method, of converting from the film print, is a substantial compromise that the industry has no incentive to accept or allow.

The company has also commenced the networking of theatres using VSAT connectivity and will be ready to commence content downloads to the Qube network theatres by the third week of August. Hughes Network Systems (India) Ltd. along with Hughes Escorts Communication Limited are partnering Real Image to enable this networking.

The second phase of expansion of Qube has also commenced, both in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and plans are on to reach a network size of at least 250 theatres between the two states by the end of FY 2005-06.

Real Image has, with the successful digital screening of Chandramukhi for 100 days on the Qube Digital Cinema System, demonstrated that digital cinema is a sound choice for the future of the cinema industry in more ways than one:

Says Mr. Sv. Rm. Ramanathan, Managing Director of Abirami Megamall in Chennai:
“The distributor share at Abirami, Chennai, is the highest for a single screen for the film Chandramukhi. We attribute the extra luck for us to Digital Projection as Chandramukhi was digitally projected in Abirami on the Qube Cinema Player, and has now completed 100 days of continuous operation. I would urge all industry stakeholders including producers and distributors to pro-actively support this transformation and make all content available to theatres in the digital format.”

Mr. Senthilnathan, owner of Abirami Theatre in Erode:
“In the beginning, though we were apprehensive of the new technology, we boldly took the decision to go ahead, given the strength of the company that is backing this transformation - Real Image. Today, we are extremely pleased that our trust in Real Image and Qube Cinema has paid off. We would unhesitatingly recommend the Qube Cinema Player and the digital format in general to all theatres to adopt for the benefit of the industry as a whole.”

Mr. Raj and Mr. Prabhakar, owners of Guru Theatre in Madurai:
“We are very happy that our theatre Guru, in Madurai, has completed 100 days screening of the film Chandramukhi in hi-def digital format on Qube Cinema Player. We are thrilled that even on the 100th day, the digital print, as promised, looked the same as it did on the first day of screening! We truly appreciate the reliability of the Qube Cinema player developed by Real Image. The support provided by their technical team has been excellent. Today, our operators handle the entire playback with great ease.”

Mr. Radja Radjane, Executive Director of Ananda Theatre in Pondichery:
“The reliability of the Qube Cinema Player, developed by Real Image, and the ease of operation that the system offers our operators is truly appreciated. The support provided by the company’s technical team is commendable. The favourable response from the audience towards the digital screening is proof of the quality that Qube Cinema offers.”

The Qube Cinema Player from Real Image offers the film fraternity an internationally acclaimed digital cinema technology that can be the base for future innovation yet ensures backward compatibility. Qube Cinema provides the ultimate combination of quality, reliability, ease-of-use, security and flexibility. Being almost entirely software based allows the Qube system to leverage developments in the computer industry to bring cinemas a cost-effective professional product that projectionists everywhere will be instantly familiar with.