Excerpts:

What are your plans for Kodak India?
We see India as an opportunity for Kodak to invest in multiplexes and raise the quality bar of cinema in the country by creating state-of-the-art cinemas and taking further the long-term partnership between Kodak and the movie industry. India has a long and proud history in the creation of motion pictures, but today, too few of those movies are shown with all the quality and pride the filmmaker intended. The `magic' that movies are capable of delivering is not being delivered to the audience. While Kodak is working actively to `raise the quality bar' for theatrical motion picture presentation, the success/acceptance of Kodak's work will depend on co-operation among a number of industry participants, including exhibitors, distributors, laboratories, and the government.

What are the special product offerings/effects planned for the commercial industry in India?
The products and services Kodak has in the world marketplace have application and enthusiastic support by customers for a broad range of applications, including feature film, television and commercial production. Kodak Vision colour negative films are the world's clear choice for producing commercials for the best-known products and brands. Kodak Ektachrome films and black-and-white products are used to extend the cinematographer's creativity in commercial production. Kodak's Cinesite facility in London has extensive experience in creating cinema commercials and music videos.

Which Kodak innovations are in the pipeline?
Kodak remains committed to the future of the motion picture film as the primary medium of projection for large-screen entertainment for long into the future. Because each tiny frame of film needs to be magnified several hundred thousand times to create an image on the cinema screen, each component of the film `system' is important and can be improved.

Are there major differences between the contemporary trends in the Indian market and global markets?
Although there are differences within and among countries and regions, more than half of the world's people have never seen images on a large screen. Emerging countries, especially, are under-screened. India has approximately 13,000 screens or one screen for every 80,000 people. China, with 61,000 screens, leads the region (one screen for every 21,000 people) while South Korea has the fewest number of screens (594) and about 80,000 people per screen.

Which way is the USP of your company evolving?
The concept of a Unique Selling Proposition-which was developed by the Ted Bates Agency as a basis for advertising-is largely thought to be out-moded today (because of converging technologies, lower barriers to entry, etc.) and is replaced by a concept called `UEP', Unique Emotional Proposition, or

`How does your customer want to feel using your products?'
Whatever concept you use, Kodak has pictures across a range of technologies. Consider the theme line Kodak used a century ago, "You Press The Button. We Do The Rest", and compare it to the themeline we use today "Take Pictures. Further". Together they sum up Kodak's core philosophy: The promise of innovation and the guarantee of simplicity.

Can you comment on current global trends in the cinema industry-and India specifically?
The two dominant trends in the cinema industry today are multi-plexing and over-expansion. The multi-plex trend continues to move into new regions where older single screens are gradually being replaced, as the multi-plex model has proven to be so much more efficient at spreading overhead costs.

Many countries, including India which has one screen per 80,000 people, desperately needs exhibition infrastructure investment to bring it in alignment with these industry advances. India remains an attractive market for exhibition expansion, but while many tax barriers have been removed, investment is still being hampered by the high business taxes that remain.

So what will that mean for the cinema business?
According to our sources, a number of trends will take place in the coming months and years. The total number of screens worldwide may shrink slightly as the higher-grossing multiplex screens replace antiquated ones. India still leads the world in total cinema admissions, and going to the movies is an ingrained part of the culture. The advent of more modern multi-plexes in coming years should reinforce this trend and strengthen the existing local movie production business as well.

What has been the impact of Kodak's digital specialty on Indian cinema?
The concept of digital cinema has been demonstrated, especially in the US, and audiences that have seen digitally-projected movies are satisfied with the image quality. By one industry estimate, more than one million people, worldwide, have seen a digitally-projected movie. Today, there are about 30 digital cinema screens worldwide out of a total of about 160,000 screens.

India is in a unique position, lying between Asia and Europe, to take advantage of the most advanced technologies from both areas. Satellite transmission, which will be a key infrastructure element in digitalcinema, is already fairly common in India which will positively position it for rapid adoption in the future.

So will the future be digital for Indian cinema?
In India it will, however, be a very long time before digital cinema replaces film cinema. Instead, it could so happen that digital cinema and film cinema will exist side-by-side. As the market for digital cinema evolves, Kodak will be ready. We are working now, in our Imaging Technology Centre in Hollywood, to develop a digital cinema system that will provide on-screen images that will be twice as good as any digitally-projected images that have been seen so far.

In Kodak's Cinesite facilities in Hollywood and London, Kodak has expertise in the process of scanning and manipulating images. It is called `digital mastering' and consists of creating a Kodak Digital Intermediate, which can be used to make film prints, digital copies, or image files which can be sent via satellites or land lines all with consistent colour andimage integrity. Cinesite has created special visual effects for some of the world's most popular movies, including "Mission Impossible 2", "The X-Men", and several James Bond films.