Screen star

Screen star

Published on Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Pro Audio Asia, July/August 2017

Film and technology in India has undergone a considerable change since Senthil Kumar embarked on a computer science degree at the Regional Engineering College, now the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, in 1982. At that time, Mr Kumar - who had a fascination for technology - was one of the first batch of computer science undergraduates in the country. He also found himself gravitating towards the technical processes of the films his father - a Tamil director - was working on, particularly the audio component.

I soon discovered that sound technology was quite primitive and backward in India at that time, he remembers. Determined to change this, he started educating himself on the possibilities of audio by reading books and magazines on the latest technology.

By 1986, Mr Kumar had secured some savings and a loan, enough to start Media Artists, a film, audio and video post-production facility in Chennai. He imported equipment from the US and Europe and began working on film dialogue, music scores and mixing. Equipped with an Amek Angela mixing desk, Otari 2-inch 24-track recorder, Yamaha 16-track digital mixer, Genelec monitors and comprehensive sound multi-track recording on the subcontinent.

Media Artists began to produce short films and television programs in the country including Doctor Narendranin Vinodha Vazhakku (The Strange Trial of Dr Narendran) and En Iniya Endira (My Sweet Robot), both of which were highly acclaimed by TV audiences.

Disaster struck in 1991 when a fire destroyed the studio. However, as is often the case, new opportunities arose from the ashes, and the subsequent rebuild saw Mr. Kumar reinvent the studio. This was shaped by a friend whose company, Navodaya, was producing Bible ki Kahaniyan, a new TV serial by Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan. During this project Mr. Kumar had glimpsed the future: computer-based editing.

Nonlinear editing was just beginning to happen, and I started looking around for the best option, he says. From among the two or three choices available I settled on Avid, which looked like the most promising one.

An Avid Film Composer was purchased by Navodaya, and Mr. Kumar helped to set it up and train the staff. When a representative from the US manufacturer came to Chennai a couple of months later, he was reportedly surprised to see the system up and running, editing the TV series that Navodaya had produced. Discussions with Mr. Kumar led to Avid offering him the opportunity to promote and sell the technology in India, and in 1992 he joined forces with Jayendra Panchapakesan, a former advertising copywriter turned advertising filmmaker, to set up Real Image.

The partnership with Avid, which has firmly established the brand in India as well as transforming the film industry, continues today. But the challenge involved in convincing film editors back then to switch to non-linear editing was enormous.

Most of the editors in the early nineties were not from any school, and had all learned their trade through apprenticeships, he remembers. They didnt even know how to operate a computer, so we had to start from the basics and teach them how to use a mouse.

Fortunately, many film directors were quick to grasp the importance o Avid, speeding u the revolution in the film editing landscape. The first customer was prominent actor, director and producer Kamal Hassan. Most leading Indian film studios quickly adopted the new technology, including Famous, Western Outdoor, Crest Communications, National Film Development Corporation and Filmkraft Productions.

Avid changed the film editing landscape in India and most of the leading studios in the south of the country as well as facilities in Mumbai, recalls Mr. Kumar. The technology was widely taken up over a five-year period.

By that time, excellent sound was being created in postproduction studios across the subcontinent. However, most cinemas were equipped with poor sound systems that were unable to do justice to the new, improved soundtracks. This was extremely frustrating for filmmakers so Mr. Kumar and Mr. Panchapakesan started looking for technology that would improve sound in the cinemas. The resulting tie-up with Digital Theater Systems (DTS) would enable Indian cinema to skip a generation, going directly from mono sound to digital.

Real Image invested profits from selling Avid into launching DTS in India in 1995. An initial arrangement was established whereby 20 units were installed in cinemas around Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which the cinema owners would start paying for once their film screenings had turned a profit. Within three years the format had taken hold, and was being licensed across the country.

By now, Media Artists had established itself as one of Indias leading studios, specialising in mixing in the DTS digital format. The first DTS feature film made in India, Karupu Roja, was engineered in Media Artists in 1996, and the facility had begun working on surround sound productions. Media Artists boasted many high profile clients including Buena Vista International, for which it dubbed several Walt Disney features and television programmes including Aladdin and The Lion King into Indian languages.

However, Real Image didnt stop at audio and by the turn of the century, the company was turning its attention to video. We realized that sound was only half the story and it was just a matter of time before picture too went digital, explains Mr. Kumar.

This time Real image did not want to rely on importing technology, and began to develop its own. In 2003 Qube Digital Cinema, an end-to-end solution for the mastering, distribution and exhibition of film was introduced. The technology was initially rolled out across distribution initially rolled out across Tamil Nadu in 2005, and by 2007,

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