Bengaluru ,Feb. 8: Very soon, Shrek and Princess Fiona would come riding on their donkey at a country near you. As the donkey sneezes, your face will be filled with mist; as a carriage moves, you can feel the steam; and when Shrek rides a horse, your seat will rock too.

While James Cameron’s motion picture Avatar has made 3-D fashionable, there are theme parks across the world that have been experimenting with a much more immersive, multi-sensory medium — 4-D. Films in 4-D mix every attribute of a 3-D presentation with special effects right inside the theatre. So when it rains in the film, for example, water sprays are used in the theatre to create a more realistic and enhanced cinematic experience. Shrek 4-D has been presented in Universal Studios’ theme parks in the US, Japan, and Germany. Now, it would open in Universal Studios Singapore, located at one of the world’s most expensive tourism project — Resorts World in Sentosa. The resort, being developed with an investment of over $6 billion, is partially opening during the Chinese New Year.While you may want to say ‘Hi’ to Shrek during your next Singapore visit, it is also possible to experience 4-D in India. There are a handful of theatres — less than a dozen — which present custom-made films with physical effects. The technology is licensed either from companies in China or Israel. Chennai-based Dynamic Dimensions India, which recently set up a 4-D theatre in the city’s Abirami Mall, uses technology from Simnoa Technologies, an Israeli firm. Simnoa makes ‘4D Smart Chairs’ that produce sensation effects. A bench of chairs is placed on a multi-leveled floor controlled by a central synchronising system. The fourth dimensional experience comes as the chairs sway in multiple directions, tilts, tickles, vibrates; emits air, water, and fragrances.The market is still nascent but 4-D dream merchants in the country say the medium is rapidly gaining popularity. It is only a question of putting more theatres in every city and town. However, the bottleneck is high expenses — it costs nearly a crore to put up 10 chairs that can rock. But managing director of Dynamic Dimensions Charanya Ravishankar says her company is in an expansion mode and would open seven new theatres by the year-end. Many of them would come up in tier II and III cities, places that are perhaps entertainment-starved. She was encouraged by the response her Chennai theatre received in its first month of operations. Nearly 10,000 people flocked it in January this year. The presentations began on December 30 2009. “We will peak during April-May. We expect 2 lakh visitors this year,” Ravishankar says. The theatre, called Funmax, is showing two films currently —Haunted Raceway and Forest Adventure. Depending on the nature of the film, the shows are typically between 5 minutes and 15 minutes. The ‘ride films’ are shorter with all the effects experienced at a stretch. Innovative Film City in Bengaluru also has a 4-D theatre that screens six films. Director of operations Syed Salim says the genre is picking up in the country and almost everybody visiting the park experiences the 4-D show. The park has a footfall of about 1800 a day. “There are 60 seats and we would put up another theatre once the foot fall increases,” he notes.

Goutam Das