Scrabble to invest Rs 185 cr to add 600 screens

Scrabble Entertainment plans to expand operations with a Rs 185-crore investment to take the number of screens to 1,000 by December 2012, a top company official said.

UFO Moviez, which is the largest satellite-based digital movie projection enabler in the country, has a 52% interest in Scrabble Entertainment.

"At the moment, we have 411 screens. Before the end of March, we will spend Rs 35 crore to set up 100 more screens. This will take our total screens to over 500. By the end of this calendar year, we will spend an additional Rs 150 crore to take our total number of screens to 1,000," Scrabble Entertainment Chief Executive Ranjit Thakur told PTI.

In six months, the company also plans to expand its operations into West Asia region by setting up digital movie projection screens across the GCC countries, he said.

"Besides Hollywood movies, we will also take Hindi movies to these markets. We see a good market in these countries," he said.

The company will also set up certified labs in Mumbai and Dubai at a cost of Rs 8 crore each to enable the digital mastering of movie content into Hollywood's 2K JPEG 2000 standard, incorporating all security features, Thakur said.

"We take the master hard drive to Dubai for subtitling and editing for all seven countries. Subtitling is done in the Arabic, English and the French, before it is dispatched to cinemas with digital projection systems.

"We are a one-stop solution company for all those who wish to release digital movies across the world. We also provide 24x7 technical support from our Dubai facility," he said.

The company is bullish on Hollywood content in the domestic market, which he claims is growing very fast.

"Including the revenues coming from dubbed Hollywood content, today Hollywood brings in 18% of box office collections from all the major multiplexes owned by PVR, Inox, Cinemax, Cinepolis and Fame.

"These days, Hollywood flicks are being released here before they are released in the US. We expect revenues from Hollywood content to keep increasing," he said.