A man with a real vision

It is Madras in the early 1980s and Senthil Kumar along with a group of his friends is one of the first batches of students to graduate with a computer science degree. Unsure of what to do and facing the relatively unchartered waters of his new qualification he decides to dip his feet in the AVM family business by assisting his father direct the film Unidathil Naan.

“I was always a creative person and I applied my recently gained technology background to the area of audio post production,” he reflects. “In those days the equipment being used was awful and primitive and government controls on the import of new equipment were quite prohibitive.”

“As a result the Indian film industry fell way behind the rest of the world in terms of technical output. I tried to use whatever knowledge I had to improve the quality of sound through simple changes in the post-production process. Luckily I had great results with my work on that film and I went on to set up my own company called Real Image Media Industries, firstly specialising in the production of film soundtracks.

Despite the fact that he was just “almost an engineer” as he mockingly describes himself, the State Government also recognised the potential of his work and offered him funding to develop his business and acquire the much needed equipment from abroad.

“My plan was to set up this company and then move to the US and settle down there but the technology was changing so quickly and the projects kept coming in and we began to move into digital film editing and digital video and audio,” he says with understated pride.

Today, after years of careful planning and pioneering the latest technological advancements, his company provides complete digital cinema systems to the rest of the world.  They are market leaders in the realm of film technology marketing.

Through his constant search for the most current and best way to improve the quality of cinema sound and vision, Senthil and his team went about developing a set of products to bring India back on par with the rest of the world of cinema.

“It was the work we did on films such as Indian / Hindustani, Kala Pani and Karupu Roja that really triggered a revolution everywhere. People immediately took notice of the differences and improvement in sound and editing,” he recalls.

 “However nowadays with the massive rise in popularity of sites such as Youtube.com and the video streaming on the internet it will be interesting to see if these advances in the quality of sound and vision will be upheld. Far too many people seem to be OK with sacrificing quality for convenience,” he warns.
 

Posted on Fri, 05/28/2010 - 00:00