BigFlicks to entertain you at home

The next time a Bollywood flick releases at the nearby theatre, you wouldn’t necessarily travel all the way to watch it. Chances are the movie would come to you.

For those of you who are wondering what we are talking about, here is the news. Reliance ADA has come out with its on-demand movie download venture offering entertainment in languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Punjabi under the options-free streaming or download to own.

Just after the launch of BigFlicks.com, Prasad Ramasubramanian from CyberMedia News caught up with Rajesh Sawhney, president—Reliance Entertainment for a tête-à-tête to know more about the initiative.

Excerpts from the interview:

CMN: Could you tell us about the reason behind this initiative?

Rajesh Sawhney: This venture is a giant step towards the evolution of the Indian movie industry. As the society matures, it is clearly a trend for people to consume entertainment at home. We have seen that in mature economies, there is a huge demand for home entertainment, which is increasing with the rising income levels of the users. It is our endeavor to bring movie entertainment home to the millions. We only require a dimension, a structure for people to do that. This is the first manifestation of that, which you see today. As the world moves onto mobile and the Internet I think this technology would have a huge impact across the world.

CMN: Do you see this venture taking off since the margins from the home entertainment is still miniscule in India?

RS: If you look at a Hollywood movie, it generates more revenues through home entertainment platforms such as DVDs, etc. than via the theatrical distribution platform. In India, home entertainment contributes in low single digits to a movie’s revenues.

CMN: Why is that so?

RS: It is simply because we lack effective home entertainment platform. With this venture, our vision is to build a scalable business model that brings entertainment to all kinds of consumers and homes through a multi-channel distribution platform across the Internet, broadband, home delivery and retail infrastructure. Second, we believe that BigFlicks.com will become the window of Indian entertainment content to the world. With over one billion people on the net and increasingly on broadband, the portal offers an opportunity for Indian movie industry to reach out to the audience across the world.

This venture reaffirms our belief that there is an inherent demand for Indian content and thus will be aggressively marketed to the global audience.

CMN: There are so many movies that have been released and how do you plan to choose them for the viewer?

RS: Our goal is to provide all the movies that the Indian cinema has produced to the user. Our goal is to have as many as possible in our catalogue.

CMN: Talking about movies, how do you differentiate a successful one and a flop?

RS: In our world there is no word called flop. We do not recognize this word at all.

CMN: With the pricing war that is going on in the home entertainment, how would you counter the pricing conflicts?

RS: I don’t see any conflict and the question is who is creating the infrastructure to reach the consumer. I think that’s the important thing to watch out for.

CMN: Could you elaborate the investment plans that you have in place for this venture?

RS: At present, we have a USD100 million as investment for this venture.

CMN: What would be the main driver for BigFlicks.com?

RS: The main driver for this business would be through user subscription.