Chennai
Abirami Ramanathan graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the prestigious Guindy College of Engineering; went on to do electrical engineering and has a masters degree in homeopathy.
He is an excellent photographer and above all a cineplex-mall entrepreneur. He is a multi-tasker, because he can assess the pH value of boiling groundnut oil, can pull apart a motor bike, service it and put it together.
Being a Chettiar, turning any venture into a profitable one comes naturally to him. No one would be surprised to know he had Rs 9,000 in his pocket when he graduated, having run a school magazine and later on, a cigarette shop in college hostel, college magazine among other enterprises.
Tell him a two-line story, and he can straightaway tell you if it will click at the box office or not. After so much of knowledge acquisition, Abirami Ramanathan chose the glitzy world of entertainment as his profession.
“Fate has put me in cinema,” he says. However, it was a conscious decision—when his father asked him and his three brothers to each choose a business in 1993, Ramanathan chose the family movie business over rubber plantations, textiles and oil businesses. He then went on to redefine the movie watching experience and made it into a brilliant package of family entertainment. “I decided early on to be public friendly and give people what they want,” says the man who has introduced many novel concepts in his Abirami Mega Mall.
He was the first in the country to introduce DTS in India. Quick to see the potential in hassle-free booking, he introduced the concept of computer booking, a first in the country. Again, he was a pioneer in the ‘Dial a ticket’ concept, where one could call and book tickets.
Abirami Mega Mall also boasts the 165 degree seat—that is the angle at which our teenagers usually spend their lives when at home— reclining , with snacks an arm’s length away. Naturally, Ramanathan took the recliner experience to a new level—he introduced food service inside the theatre—so your popcorns, chips and coke are never far away. Many industry people hail Abirami Mega Mall for being the country’s first cinema and mall synergy.
As a highly respected film exhibitor who has been the president of exhibitors association for many years, Ramanathan has also forayed into filmmaking. He is currently producing Unnodu Kaa , a full length comedy, which has been scripted by him. In a way, life has come full circle for the man who debuted as a child artiste in a K Subrahmanyam film.
He was shown holding the finger of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru with one hand, and holding the finger of another girl with the other. When his mother saw the stills of him with a girl, she said, “Enough of cinema for you, You are already holding a girl’s hand! There ended my star career,” recalls Ramanthan, with a laugh.
When asked about the future of theatre business, Ramanathan, in an interaction with DT Next said it will continue to remain relevant. “If it can survive in the USA with all the advances in technology, it will flourish in countries like India where the theatre effect, in watching a movie, cannot be replaced by anything else at home,” he says. According to him, those wanting to enter the theatre industry would be better advised to bring in a corporate entity to fund the project. It would be wise to not to invest one’s own money into stand alone theatres anymore, since the future is all about theatres in a mall, he feels.
When asked about the guiding principles in his success story, he says he always believes that whatever happens is for the best. The other mantra is ‘Believe in yourself’.
As someone who has rubbed shoulders with the industry’s best, we ask him about politics and cinema. “Tamil Nadu politics will always be controlled by cinema,” he says, but refuses to comment on whether Ajith and Vijay enter politics.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android