'Baahubali' to open new doors for Dolby Atmos in Indian cinema
Chennai, July 7: The release of SS Rajamouli's highly anticipated Rs.250 crore multilingual motion picture "Baahubali" in Dolby Atmos will encourage more number of Indian filmmakers to adopt the latest sound technology to provide engaging cinema experience, says Pankaj Kedia of Dolby Laboratories. "'Baahubali' has paved way to very good response from exhibitors in Andhra and Telangana. This was a market where we had the least number of screens, but thanks to 'Baahubali' and upcoming film 'Rudhramadevi', we have witnessed a considerable rise in the number of Atmos screens in the states," Kedia, senior regional director - India, South East Asia, ANZ of Dolby, told IANS. Atmos unleashes the potential of sound in storytelling by giving filmmakers the creative freedom to easily place or move sounds anywhere in the movie theatre. Thanks to "Baahubali", which releases in cinemas worldwide on Friday, several exhibitors across the country have added additional screens with the technology. "The quality of the content is amazing. I haven't seen anything like 'Baahubali' in India ever. And since it's releasing in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam, we're targeting to release it in all the 100 Atmos screens in the country, depending upon how the shows will be programmed," he said. In south alone, "Baahubali" is expected to release in over 50 Atmos facilitated movie screens. First introduced in India in 2012 with superstar Rajinikanth-starrer "Sivaji 3D", Atmos has successfully released 100 Indian film titles. "What's really encouraging is that no longer conversations are about the cost involved, as filmmakers are more concerned about providing the best experience for audience. It's more about enhancing storytelling with the technology," he added. Globally, the company has approximately 1,000 screens and 300 titles to its credit. Pankaj says the adoption of the technology has been very rapid in India. Some of the highly anticipated releases in Dolby Atmos include "Puli", "Rudhramadevi", "Maya" and "Azhar". The last one is a biopic on former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin.
