PTI

New Delhi, Aug 11: The golden hits of legendary showman Raj Kapoor -such as 'Bobby', 'Prem Rog' and 'Satyam, Shivam, Sundram'- are all set to be digitalised after RK Studios announced its partnership with UFO Moviez, a pioneer in digital cinema solutions.

RK Studios will throw open its original film prints library to the solutions provider to be converted into the digital widescreen format.

Instead of projectors and the lights, the digitally-enabled theatre will receive the audio-video digital stream directly from the satellite and play the movie on the widescreen inside the hall.

Commenting on the decision to go digital, Raj Kapoor's son and the torchbearer of RK Studios, Randhir Kapoor said, "The films have a limited shelf life and the print quality deteriorates with the passage of time and repeated screening."

Various single-screen theatres and multiplexes have urged Kapoors to permit them to screen all-time romantic and social hits created by the legendary showman.

"We thought it is appropriate to have them released in digital prints to preserve these much-loved films for eternity," Kapoor said, adding some films will be digitalized to start with and then the entire library will be made available for the conversion.

Randhir Kapoor, who too has many romantic-comedies such as 'Ponga Pandit' to his credit, said he could not think of a better way of ensuring perpetuity of the films than letting UFO digitalise them.

"It is not the income that we will earn from these movies but the sheer pleasure and joy of making classics available to the audiences in a good format," Kapoor said.

Elated at the 'honour' of being assigned to do the digital prints of some of the most-loved classics, Pankaj Jaysinh of UFO Moviez said, "We feel like we are playing a part in preserving the history of Indian cinema by maintaining these beautiful classics for future generations."

"Raj Kapoor's movies and songs cut across all generations all classes and it will be our pleasure to play a part in the screening of his timeless classics," Jaysinh said.

UFO Moviez is part of the Rs 4,000 crore Group Apollo, and is cashing on its technology-enabled business innovations since mid-2005.

With over 800 digital cinema installations across India, UFO counts itself among the largest digital cinema networks in the world.

It is also the only digital cinema platform in India offering end-to-end digital cinema solutions and delivering films via satellite directly to theatres using a unique pay-per-show business model.

Recently USA-based 3i, one of the world's leading investment funds dealing in technology and innovative products firm, took a strategic stake in UFO by investing Rs 100 crore in the company.