24 minutes agoAuthor: Kiran Jain/Virendra Mishra
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In theaters of the cinemas, the film was first placed on the film’s heavy reel projector, which had to be converted every 15-20 minutes. If there was a slight lapse, the film would stop in the middle or the reel would have burnt. Sometimes the reel does not reach theaters on time, sometimes it would have been stolen or bad, which caused a lot of trouble to the audience.
But now everything has changed. Digital projection has made the work of theater owners and operators easier and made the audience’s cinema experience better than before. Now films are run with just one click. Neither the hassle of changing the reel, no fear of any kind of malfunction.
Today, in this episode of ‘Reel to Real’, we will understand how this change happened in theaters? What was the effect on the theater owners and projectionists and how the digital technology changed the experience of the audience. To understand this entire process, we owned Gauryti-Galaxy Theater, Manoj Desai, Progressist P.A. Talked to Salam and Mohammad Aslam, distributor Dilip Dhanwani and director Vivek Sharma.
Earlier there were two projector in theaters
In Pune’s NFAI (National Film Archive of India), Film projectionist P.A.Salam said- each film had to run with two projector. As soon as the first reel was over, the second reel had to be started. It was necessary to do all this with the perfect timing, otherwise it would be black out on the screen. The entire process was manual. That is, everything had to be done on its own. Changing reel, setting projector and even reel had to be rewind by hand.
Arc lamp used for projection, which was like a welding rod. It had to be adjusted continuously, otherwise the light on the screen would have become less. The projectionists had to stand continuously, could not even move. If even a little attention is diverted, then the experience of the film watching could have deteriorated.
A 40 kg reel had to be handled for a two -and -a -half -hour film.
At that time the cinema was completely dependent on the 35mm film reels. A film had 10-15 reels for a film. Each reel was about 15-20 minutes and the weight of each reel was about two and a half kilos. Meaning, about 40 kg of reels had to be handled to show a two -and -a -half -hour film.
The reel was also broken in the projector. Many times it used to be that while moving the film, the reel used to break in the projector. The film had to be stopped immediately. Then it was added and run forward. This was a major interesting moment for the audience. Some people used to shout, and some used to joke. We used to fix it quickly and turn the film again. During this time a little scene was missed, but the public could not understand.
Public did not know that the reel was being changed
Mohammad Aslam, who was a projectionist at Regal Cinema in Mumbai for the last 55 years, said- Reel had to change so carefully that the public did not know that the reel was being changed. At that time, three men worked in a shift. Two men stood on two different two projector and the third man used to rewind the reel with hand. With the arrival of digital, only a man works.
At that time, Corbon used to use carbon in the projector. It was to be noted that the carbon could not be extinguished, if extinguished, the film did not appear on the screen. After that the lamp came, he did not extinguish and the film used to go on screen. Currently, the entire film comes in a pen drive in Digital. It has to be loaded and run, now it is not as hard as before.
The film’s box used to reach the distributor a day earlier.
The film’s compartments used to reach the theater a day before the distributor. If it was very late, then the day the film is being released, they used to come in the morning. Apart from Mumbai, the film coaches were transported from transport to other cities. It was rare that the film’s compartments did not reach the theater with the right time. This work was handed over to a man of very confident so that the coaches could not be stolen. Usually the reels were lost many times during transportation. Once, two reels of the film sent to Bhopal disappeared. Then we had to immediately get another copy.
Once the projector’s motor burned
Once the projector’s motor was burnt. There was smoke in the entire cabin. Relected from that projector and put it in another projector. The public only came to know that the film was closed, but the projector’s motor was burnt. It was not known about this. Our effort was that the film should run under all costs.
It took two months to learn projector
How to upload the reel on the projector. What precautions had to be taken during that time. It took two months to learn all this. After the arrival of digital, the computer had to learn. Then people started learning within 2-4 days how to do programming. Those who could not learn computers lost their jobs. At present, all the earlier projectors have been sold in Bhangar.
What changed with digital projection?
The new system is easy, but the old age was something else. Earlier, one had to work very hard to show a film, now the film goes on by pressing a button. Earlier, we had to stand for a full three hours, now even start the film and can go to eat food, but yes, some people still like 35mm prints, because in digital that original feeling does not come. The thrill of showing the film in olden times is no longer there. Even though hard work has reduced, the things and memories of that era will always be close to the heart. It is a different matter that the quality of picture and sound has already become very good.
In any case, screening had to reach timely
Projectionist P.A. Referring to an incident of his career, Salaam says- Once we had to screen a film at NCPA (National Center for the Performing Arts) in Mumbai. We were going by train with the film’s print, but the train stopped due to the children’s strike. At that time there were no mobiles, only landline. Somehow called and told that we are getting late. Then the coolie was called and got the coaches of the film and reached the Karjat by catching it. From there took a taxi for Dadar and somehow arrived at the screening time. That day was very tension.
In the trial of Shah Rukh’s film, projectionists put the wrong reel
Director Vivek Sharma shared an anecdote related to Shah Rukh Khan’s film ‘Chahat’. He said- Projectionists had a lot of mastery in their work. They knew when to put on the second reel projector before the first reel was over, but sometimes mistakes were made. When the trial of the film ‘Chahat’ was going on, the projectionist put the wrong reel. He had to install a third reel after the second reel, but accidentally put fourth reel. At that time I was assisting Mahesh Bhatt. Bhatt Saheb flashed all the assistants, but the projectionist descended from the projection room and apologized and told that the mistake was his.
Local distributors used to cut the scenes of the film
Prints were very expensive, so films were released with 100-150 prints. Big star films were released with 200 prints. Earlier, the film was released in theater in the theater in big cities, after a month or two, it was released in small towns. At that time, the local distributor also used to cut the film according to his own. If the distributor did not feel the need to sing in a film, he would also remove the songs. If the film looks long, they used to cut the middle scenes. All these things can no longer do in digital, because the entire DCP (digital cinema package) is made and it is password protected. Today, the film can be released on thousands of screens simultaneously.
The film ‘Sholay’ was released with the first four prints
Distributor Dilip Dhanwani shared an anecdote related to the film ‘Sholay’. He said- When ‘Sholay’ was released on 15 August 1975, only four prints were made. One for Delhi, one UP and two for Mumbai. At that time, the same 70mm print was run in two different theater in Delhi according to different show timings. These prints were transported through physical transport among theaters.
The same situation was in Mumbai. He used to shift between different theaters by placing the same print on a bike. There was a run between Shan Cinema (Vile Parle) from Chandan (Juhu), Minerva from Metro and Eros Theater to Central Plaza. This work was quite risky, because a little delay meant the show to stop and the uproar of the audience in the theater.
Now the entire system of the projection room has changed
Manoj Desai, the owner of Gauti-Galaxy Cinema Hal, Mumbai’s Gaiety-Galaxy Cinema Hal, also talked to the reel about the change of digital. He said- Earlier projector had to work very hard, there were less benefits and more disadvantages. Now even those projectors do not run, because the new technology that has come directly comes in digital form. Earlier sounds and videos used to come separately, but now we get directly in digital format via satellite. The entire system of the projection room has changed.
Earlier the film had to do many settings to project properly, the sound had to be adjusted. Now the latest sound system has become completely automatic, there is no need to work as much as before.
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