There is a lot of buzz around the Indian Bollywood Industry. Very recently, Eros Entertainment announced its tie-up with Youtube for creating a dedicated channel for its music videos and promos of the film. That has been a huge success with more than a million hits to EROS Channel in less than s month of its launching.
Last week, Rajshri, an Indian Bollywood movie and portal was in news as it grabbed the rights to release the hit movie Bheja Fry, on its popular video site. Bheja Fry probably is the only movie this year that has had a decent earning. And why not, Bheja fry was actually a movie that fried you brain with its comic scoops.
Another big Indian production house UTV, has announced mega plans for its foray into the Internet release of the movies. According to business of cinema, UTV has tied up with 3 different online portals, Rajshri, Indya on Demand and big flicks to release its forth coming films.
The two new films that will be released through Online route only will be Vikram Bhatt’s Fear and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Blue Umbrella.
Fear premieres on 10 August across three portals. This film will be released online without a theatrical release, a first for an Indian film. Further, Vishal Bhardwaj’s The Blue Umbrella also releases online on 10 August, the same day as its theatrical release in India.
Each online movie download is priced at $ 9.99 for a standard download and $ 19.99 for a higher resolution download. This is targeted at audiences in markets like the US, UK, South East Asia and the Middle East. Both movies will be available on a ‘download to own’ instead of the usual ‘download to rent’ with 72 hours DRM.
There have been quite a few movies earlier that you could officially download off the Internet by buying them. Some of them are Swades, Rang De Basanti, Taxi No 9211, Bluffmaster, Chup Chup Ke, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Hattrick, Life in a Metro, Paap and Jism.
However the big question is how successful these online releases have been. Have they been able to make significant money by making them available on the net ?
The biggest challenge for these films is whether the users will be ready to shell out money to watch these movies online or download, when they are freely available on the net via p2p network. Go to desitorrents, and you will find atleast 10 different copies of varying sizes available free of cost.
Yes, it is illegal, but can anybody take action ?
Do you think online release of movies is going to become a trend and be successful?
With low internet penetration and even lower broadband connections, will it be successful in India?
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ich will bie a bollywood moder and actor