Was Distributor Greed Responsible For Tamil Movie Debacle?
The incident: Dissatisfied patrons rioted at several theatres when the screening of the much-waited Tamil movie Sivaji (The Boss) ran into 'technical glitches' on Thursday night.Police had to be summoned to the Sri Intan theatre in Klang, which was the worst- affected, and the Sri Kinta theatre in Ipoh, to control the crowds.
Sivaji (The Boss) stars Rajinikanth, one of India’s top actors and reputedly the highest-paid Indian actor.
The excuse: Theatre manager N. Kalatharan, 48, said the movie was scheduled for screening at 9pm but due to technical problems, it only started at 10.30pm. He said tickets for both the 9pm and midnight shows had been fully booked. After unsuccessful efforts to resolve the problem, the management announced that the show had to be cancelled and offered to refund the ticket money. Kalatharan said the technical problem arose because the movie was screened using digital system for the first time.
The distributor: S. Vel Paari, chief executive of the movie's Malaysian distributor, Pyramid Saimira Theatre Chain, apologized for the trouble, saying there had been technical problems including a shortage of prints supplied by the Chennai-based movie's producer. (Incidentally Vel Paari is Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu's son)
The question: While everyone echoes the same excuse - 'technical' problems, no one has explained completely what they mean by it. Is it true that in order to prevent distributors and theater owners from cheating and making a small pile on the side by screening the film earlier than the scheduled date, digital format systems essentially 'disable' the film from being screened prior to the agreed release date? If this be so then it is a crime for which those responsible should be charged and punished. (The above information was given by a friend who has some knowledge about the digital system)
If there are any who read this post and can give us a clearer picture (pun intended) on the debacle, please do so.
Image Source: Sivaji - The Boss
From The International Herald Tribune: Indian movie plays to packed cinemas following fan violence in Malaysia
Interesting Update: Now, Rajini becomes the boss of downloads!
Labels: Cheats., Unmitigated Greed.
posted by The Malaysian. at 6/16/2007 10:06:00 PM
1 Comments:
Hi The Malaysian,
I'm not aware of the true circumstances of this fiasco, but Yes, the digital movies provide the ability to the principal worldwide distributor to control precisely the date and time the cinemas can start playing the movie. With mega budget movies, a key part of their marketing strategy is the ability to control simultaneous world-wide releases.
There's lots of other benefits to the digital technology, but of course the initial cost of installing it in every cinema is high.
The contract between the Indian principal and the local distributor would have been very clear about the authorised date and time of release. My guess is somebody tried to pull a fast one in Malaysia, without realising the digital key control is pretty tight.
Its not a fool-proof method to prevent "leaked" copies, of course. By the time a movie makes it to distribution, various internal people in the organisation could have made unauthorised, uncontrolled copies of the movie. That's why you can still have pirated copies floating around. Greed is a powerful motivator.
As an unfortunate side effect, this rioting incident reinforces the perception of Malaysian Indians being associated with violence, gangsterism, crime re. your post a few days ago.
Semi Value's son linked to this incident ? Somehow I'm not surprised.
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