With Videos-On-Demand, Bollywood Meets Web 2.0

In many ways the films of Bollywood, South Asia's prolific film industry, are tailor-made for the Web: They're instantly digestible, they're lavishly eye-catching, and they come in an unending stream of around 1,000 movies a year. Plus, the huge expat Indian community of some 25 million worldwide offers a sizable potential market.

So it makes perfect sense that Bollywood.tv is using next-generation caching and content-delivery technology to bring its vast collection of South Asian spectacles to online subscribers around the world.

Based in London and owned by Australian investment firm Charter Pacific Corp., Bollywood.tv was founded in 2005. It has amassed a catalog of 1,900 contemporary and classic Bollywood movies in languages including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, and Bengali. The site charges $3.99 and up to watch full-length movies and has a monthly subscription offering as well.

Along with third-party providers like Bollywood.tv, big Bollywood studios are getting into the online act as well. Last year two of the largest Indian film factories, Rajshri Group and Eros Entertainment, began making their movies available via download to fans across the Web. Several recent South Asian blockbusters have been released simultaneously in theaters and on the Web. Read More>>

Aamir Khan's Ghajini rights for Rs 90 cr

With pre-release movie rights becoming hot property, the Hindi remake of Tamil movie Ghajini, starring Aamir Khan, has earned an estimated Rs 90 crore by selling its distribution rights. Last year, Om Shanti Om was the top grosser in distribution rights, it sold the rights to Eros for a reported Rs 73 crore.

The Indian Film Company has bagged the domestic distribution rights for the Aamir Khan-starrer for an estimated Rs 53 crore. IFC is managed by B K Enterprises a joint venture of Viacom and Raghav Bahl. Producers Madhu Varma and Allu Arvind have sold the home video rights, overseas rights and satellite rights for another Rs 40 crore.

When contacted, the Indian Film Company’s Sandeep Bhargav confirmed that they had bought the rights for the untitled Hindi remake of Ghajini. Ghajini has been the highest grossing Tamil hit. I believe that the remake of Ghajini will be one of the biggest films of this year. It stars Aamir Khan, so it’s a special film. We have acquired it at a value that includes marketing and print expenses.” Read More>>