Sony Co Provides Content For Digital Distribution To Proposed BPCL Theatres
By Nikhil Pahwa - Thu 20 Sep 2007 10:38 PM PST
Seems very strange, but Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is setting up cinema halls at its highway fuel stations. Cinemata, a Sony (NYSE: SNE) Entertainment Television company will be providing films for the initiative, and these will be beamed via digital distribution. Digital distribution, says Keshav Shenoy, GM (Highway Retailing), will prevent piracy. BPCL has launched a pilot project in Gujarat, and if they go ahead with it, BPCL will have cinema halls at 300 fuel outlets across India. More at the Hindu.
Something of an aside: This reminds of a documentary film I’d seen at the Cinefan Film Fest a couple of months ago - Comrades in Dreams (review)- which featured a traveling cinema hall in rural India called “Anup Theatre”. Forget digital distribution, these are cinema halls operating in a large tent with villagers crammed in. Low cost entertainment. My favourite quote from the film was from Anup Jagdale (in pic, praying in front of a film reel), who owns the travelling theatre: “Why would anyone here want to watch Titanic? They’ve never seen the sea so why would they care about a sinking ship.”
