Hollywood flicks score in India with 3-D

Indian audience appears to have added a new dimension to cinema watching. So much so, that the discerning audience that still loves Hindi movies laced with song and dance numbers is lapping up an extra pair of glasses and gleefully watching English movies in 3-D. Vivek Sinha reports.

Indian audience appears to have added a new dimension to cinema watching. So much so, that the discerning audience that still loves Hindi movies laced with song and dance numbers is lapping up an extra pair of glasses and gleefully watching English movies in 3-D.

And they do no longer seem to mind the language barrier in English flicks such that many of the super hits of yesteryears such as Titanic, Spiderman, Iron Man and Ice Age, among others are being widely appreciated. Even the recent Hollywood blockbuster, Life of Pi, opened to a packed audiences in its 3-D format.

A 3-D movie offers depth perception to the images making them look more alive on the screen unlike the ordinary 2-D screenings that give only a feel of length and breadth of the screen image.

“The average occupancy goes upto 50% during the screening of an English 3-D movie while it hovers around 35% during the normal 2-D screening,” said Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, joint managing director of PVR Ltd. Bijli said that with the third dimension action sequences and special effects come alive on screen.

The gross box office collections for Hollywood 3-D movies during 2012 stood at Rs 469 crore that was up from R183 crore a year earlier.