Ten years back when I was in the university, I was much in debt of my tech savvy friends who could download any movie for free from somewhere. They knew all the tricks how to download from Chinese or Russian websites. Indian websites were not known in those days. Then came the Google that helped common net man to search "Bollywood movie online" and result was remarkable. Anyone could find any movie, particularly Bollywood, easily within one week of release. Lots of websites having "desi" or "bollywood" in their name became instant hit among Indians.
People were watching more and more for free, thanks to youtube, but the movie business in India was still controlled by a few untalented families. Promotion budget became huge and multiplexes, media houses, production house all became partners. Issue based movies, called art movies, started finding it difficult to get cinema halls for their release and then the global recession came that changed everything.
Google that was working as a philanthropy work, everything free for user, had to rethink its strategy. Their investors forced them to generate money from the biggest database they have - Youtube. Though the 3 Idiots were the first to announce the release of movie on youtube but Studio 18 became the first company to release their movie "stricker" online on youtube for free for non-US people. US people are rich and they can afford to pay $5. They might have commercial reasons to release online as there is no SRK in the movie that sells overseas but it is a game changing moment. If the producers are ready to release movie online for free or for a small charge why someone would watch illegal movie copied with a hand camera in cinema hall.
But it is a new channel for the independent, small budget, producers to release movies online at least for the overseas market. Do little math, that is what I know best. If one million (10 lakhs) people watch movie online for free, producers can definitely earn over a crore rupees from advertising. Much more than what a "art" or "parallel cinema" movie would ever earn in India.
I wish good luck to the talented artists to make movies that they like and believe in rather than making rubbish that no one likes but sales.
Friday, February 05, 2010
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