The advent of digital distribution over a decade ago has shaped Nepal’s film industry into a nearly Rs1 billion behemoth, according to some experts.

It first started back in 2007 when Digital Cinema Nepal along with its networking technical partners — UFO Digital Cinema and Scrabble — launched its service to digitise movie halls in the country.

The adoption of digital cinema technology has allowed movie halls to reach out to audiences all over the country, increasing the number of eyeballs per movie, said film industry people.

“The digital content distribution of cinema in the Nepali film industry has made a huge contribution,” said Ashok Sharma, executive chairman of Digital Cinema Nepal. The digital system makes it possible to run Nepali movies across the country at the same time with international movies, he said.  “Installing a digital cinema server in digital cinema initiative (DCI) costs Rs1 million and around Rs400,000 for non-DCI,” said Sharma.

The company charges Rs300 per show for Nepali movies and Rs452 per show for foreign movies from theatres that use their services. According to him, revenue generated from theatre advertisement in digital cinema is distributed among hall owners, agencies and digital cinema service provider. 

The company has so far provided its services to more than 99 theatres across the country. The company has been providing its services on networking and exhibition, encoding and mastering, digital theatre advertisement and digital theatre projection equipment.

Another company providing such services is Cube of Gopi Krishna Movies, who have been in the business for 1o years. The company has been charging Rs300 per show for Nepali movies and Rs500 per show for foreign movies.  Though there is not exact figure regarding the size of the Nepali film industry, an industry expert estimates that the industry is worth nearly Rs1 billion. Similarly, there are about 55 theatres with 2k resolution in the country. 

Film making technology has advanced and the quality of movie theatres also getting upgraded is positive sign for the growth of Nepali film industry, said a film director.