India's largest exhibitor Adlabs, owned by Reliance Entertainment, has unveiled plans for global expansion, as well as the roll-out of a D-cinema circuit in the domestic Indian market.

The company has acquired 240 screens across the US, some from players such as Landmark and Regal, and has also partnered with Knoxville, Tennessee-based exhibitor Phoenix Theatres.

The new circuit will be branded Big Cinemas in keeping with Reliance Entertainment's rebranding of its entertainment assets. The company also aims to establish cinemas in other overseas territories within the Bollywood footprint.

Adlabs isn't the first Indianexhibitorto enterthe US market - last November, Pyramid Saimira acquired the Richardson, Texas-based FunAsia circuit.

Speaking at the FICCI-Frames conference in Mumbai, Adlabs digital cinema COO Patrick von Sychowski also revealed that the company is establishing a D-cinema circuit in India. A test-bed of around 20 screensis being converted to D-cinema systems.

India currently has around 1,500 digital screens but most are e-cinema systems which are not DCI-compliant. A lively Frames seminar on digital cinema had the D-cinema advocates comparing cinema to milk and arguing that it's not fairto the customer to dilute it. Meanwhile, the e-cinema operators, including UFO Moviez which has converted more than 1,000 screens, argued that millions of Indians can't afford to buy milk.

Reliance Entertainment, owned by the massive Reliance ADA Group, is building a vertically-integrated studio under the Big brand. George Soros recently paid $100m for a 5% stake in the company.

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