The Blockbuster in the making - CIOL News Reports

The Blockbuster in the making

If saris, Switzerland, trees and romance come together, it's got to be Yash Raj Films (YRF). But a chat with Anand Gurnani, senior manager, Internet & New Media, Yash Raj Films, reveals that there are new twists in the script with stuff like digitization, DRM and Disney also coming under the arc lights. Gurnani elaborated while Pratima Harigunani of CyberMedia News jotted down the points.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

As one of the pioneers in adoption of technology in the Indian film industry, what's your take on digitization, a subject that has sparked more debate than deployment?

Digitization is a good move for safeguarding our films for perpetuity. Archival definitely helps to combat the concerns with traditional film material, which tends to deteriorates with time and also has storage space bottlenecks. With the emerging digital avenues like IPTV, Digital TVs etc. gradually opening up, we believe the future shall be digital.

But is YRF venturing in this space in a big way?

We are in the process of digitizing and archiving all our recent releases. The digi beta format is already working. But actual digitization will happen once the revenues through new digital mediums like IPTV start flowing in.

So what are your next technology bets?

As a production company, our aim is to always touch our customers in every way possible, through all touch points - like movies, home entertainment, music etc. Using the breakthrough spread of Internet is clearly one avenue. We want to leverage Internet's power with various revenue models and we would soon be entering into new business areas like IPTV, broadband, mobile etc. using technology to our advantage.

To sum up, has technology played a devil to the industry by abetting piracy?

Technology has always been a double-edged sword. It has added a boost in a lot of aspects – Internet is the biggest example and on the other side it has also been misused vis-à-vis illegal distribution of content. However, piracy is not only a technology issue but a mindset and legal issue as well. Technology has just made it easier for some.

©CyberMedia News

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