FILM fans in India are in for a treat as leading entertainment company IMAX said it would approach producers to purchase the rights of Bollywood films for conversion into its own high-tech format.
IMAX Corporation also revealed plans to have as many as 17 theatres in India by next year, up from three at present.
CEO Rich Gelfond said on the sidelines of the just-concluded World Economic Forum summit that India was one market where the company was keen to invest in.
“India is indeed an interesting story right now and we want to participate in this growth story.
“It is one of the very few markets that has been very slow for IMAX to develop and the reasons for that are that the ticket prices have been historically low, most of the films are Bollywood and not Hollywood and multiplexes are small with only four screens mostly,” Gelfond explained.
“But now we see a significant uptrend there. We are moving ahead with our plans and by the end of the year we could have seven-eight screens in India and then about 17 by the next year,” he added.
Gelfond said he would soon begin talks with film producers for conversion of Bollywood films into the IMAX format.
“Our focus is blockbuster movies. We do that in Hollywood with films like Harry Potter and Spiderman and would look for iconic films like these in India also,” he said, adding that the company was eyeing cinemas in smaller Indian cities as well.
