As part of foraying into new age entertainment, almost all theatres in South India would be fully digitised, a top industry official said here today.

"Currently, 85 per cent of theatres are digitised in this region. We hope all four Southern states will be 100 per cent digitised in the next one year", FICCI Media and Entertainment Business Conclave Core Committee Member Senthil Kumar told reporters here.

Speaking at the concluding day of the two-day conference organised by industry body FICCI here, he said 75 to 80 per cent of theatres are digitised in Tamil Nadu, an equal percentage in Kerala and 80 per cent in West Bengal.

Four time National award winner and Tamil film icon Kamal Hassan said the industry would convince those using the analogue format to switch to digitisation.

"Digitisation is the new way. I have done two films in digital and my upcoming film (Viswaroopam) is also being done in digital. I am also a student of digital cinema and all the equipment is available in India", he said.

Some in the industry lack understanding and fear using this technology, he said on yet to be digitised theatres.

Kamal Hassan also requested Central and State Government to allocate funds for setting up an archival centre since it involves huge investments.

FICCI Media and Entertainment Business Conclave Member and Satyam Cinemas Managing Director Kiran Reddy said an archival centre has been set up in Chennai to store old and new films. "As of now 3,500 films are stored in that. It will help us restore movies made in the past and those that will be made in future", he said.

Referring to the Copyright Act which is expected to be passed during the winter session of Parliament, Reddy said guidelines are being made on the Copyrights exclusively for industry on how to protect each and every individual's rights involved in making a cinema.

"Currently, it is largely unorganised..the guidelines will streamline the operations while making a movie.." he said.