Suparn Varma’s Aatma is the first Indian movie to have used Dolby Atmos surround sound. For those uninitiated, Dolby Atmos, a new technology introduced by Dolby Laboratories in April last year was first used in Pixar’s Brave. The first installation was in the Dolby theatre in California for the premiere of Brave. Among the horror films, recently released Mama boasted of having used the Dolby Atmos sound. Only about 23 Hollywood films have used the new technology till now.
The new technology came with a heavy cost, but Suparn says: “We feel honoured to have used this technology in India for the first time. Ours is the second horror movie after Mama to have used it. We had to spend an extra seven days post the production for Atmos Dolby. But it seemed well worth it, at the end of the day. Sound is the key for any horror film and we didn’t want to compromise on that aspect. We wanted to get the best.”
Atmos Dolby is said to give a 4-D effect in sound creating a dynamic effect, depending on the theatre capabilities. It supports up to 128 audio tracks and up to 64 speaker feeds. The Atmos Dolby technique, now available only for commercial films, is expected to be available for home videos as well.
