The march of technology severely affects livelihoods and occupations of a large number of people. Digital technology is having a similar kind of effect in the contemporary times.
While digital technology has made life easy, opening new avenues which in turn created new job opportunities, it has also ruined several occupations and crafts. Kali Das, head project operator of Batra Cinema, bears testimony to the dark shade of the new technology since its inception. He is the namesake of the great Indian poet Kalidas who once said, “The wheel of time is like the wheel of the chariot. Just like the spokes of the chariot which changes position from top to bottom and vice-versa, human life passes through troughs and crests.”
Batra Cinema, has been entertaining the people of city beautiful since July, 1980. Being testimony to the early eighties the movie theatre houses a plethora of projectors of the bygone days, still installed in the projector room. Flakes of colour peeling from these apparatus rust and its misty smell in the air is what welcomes you to this old unused room. Pile of empty spool of projectors which were once wrapped with films are lying abandoned in a corner and a box full of used arc lamp cartridges speak loud about the demise of an old technology with the advent of the new digital age.
New technology has not only replaced the big fat Carbon Arc lamp Projector into new marginal has left many jobless, who once like Kalidas were the apple of the eye of theatre owners. “In the 80’s cinemas were main source of entertainment. It was the golden age when movies were at their pinnacle. As a result of it the technical teams of a cinema hall were the most sorted after professionals basking in the glory of the period,” said Kali Das.
Kali Das has been in this profession for the last forty years. He served as a project operator of carbon arc lamp projectors. Currently he is the head project operator at Batra Cinema, Sector-37. However the digital age has pushed professionals like Das on the brink of extinction with the profession being lost in the abyss of time.
“The theatre owners and few others whose fate depended on our performance always wanted to remain in our good books. We have a position among the proprietors of the theatre and at times super stars used to sit with us in the project room biting their nail in real life hoping for a big blockbuster out of their reel life,” he added. Carbon Arc lamp projector started disappearing from the Indian movie theatres in the beginning of the year 2000 being rapidly replaced by Digital Cinema Projectors with many new features offering better quality pictures as well as sound compared to the old ones.
However reminiscing old days and his lost throne, Kalidas said, “Operating a projector was not everyone’s cup of tea. It required proper technical knowledge and lot of experience in the field to be a seasoned projector operator. It was totally a manual task which ranged from installing the spool of the reel to setting the arc lamp and projecting the movie on the project curtain.” licenses were issued for project operators of a cinema hall for authentication.
The licenses were issued after conducting proper exams. Das acquired his license from Kalka, Haryana after qualifying the required exam mend for the job. Undoubtedly, present technology project high quality, colourful entertainment for the audiences but those whose sole bread and butter depended on the old big fat projectors are now lost, leading a melancholic life.