'Half of all films released on Dolby Atmos are from India'

The first Dolby Cinema in India opened on Thursday at City Pride in Pune. It is among the six — one each in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Trichy and Ulikkal — to open this year in the country. Dolby Cinema is a combination of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos (3D sound). The San Francisco-based Dolby, which made revenues of $1.3 billion in 2024, offers audio and visual technologies that filmmakers from Christopher Nolan to SS Rajamouli swear by. In a video interview from San Francisco, John Couling, senior vice-president (Entertainment), Dolby Laboratories, spoke to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar. Edited excerpts:

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Where does Dolby sit in the entertainment ecosystem globally?

Entertainment might be a movie, your favourite sports team, a game or music. You might enjoy it in the cinema hall, on your phone, or in your car. Dolby has a presence in every one of those experiences in all those different places. We do that through partnerships with the creator, the filmmaker, the musician, and with the service that delivers that. It might be Gaana Music, or Star Sports, or JioHotstar, or a movie-maker. Or it might be the devices. Your phone, your car, like a Mahindra car, for example, has Dolby inside.

Does your revenue come from licence fees for the tech?

Yes. All our partners are partners who invest with us, whether they're making something, a device, or a show, or whatever it might be. The actual monetisation part of Dolby's business is from the device-maker. This could be your phone, television, or car. On the creation side, there's a lot of partnership through investment.

How dependent is Dolby on the entertainment business?