“Of the
1.2 billion population of India, movies should reach out to at least 300
million. But, our reach is limited to 45 million. If we figure out how to cover
this gap, it will be a game-changer”, Karan Johar.
Could Bollywood
tap the huge market in India by choosing to premier movies online? I believe
that it’s still early days. Broadband subscriber base in India is only 15
million as on 2012. Biggest challenge for films apart from low broadband
penetration, threat of piracy, is whether users will be ready to shell out
money to watch movies online or download, when they are freely available on the
net via p2p network. Online premier would entail huge online marketing, therefore,
I feel that pre-release promotions and selling a movie online after theatrical
release are the aspects which should be thoroughly explored so that the movie production
houses get a better sense of the assessing the viability and be in a better
position to predict the growth in demand for content in this channel.
However,
online premier could work for niche films with a good release strategy. In
2010, Striker became the first Indian film to premier on Youtube for
international audience. The innovative step was seen as a way to promote films
that are high on content but low on star value and don't get a chance to
release theatrically in overseas markets. In the future, movies that are
primarily targeted to the niche multiplex audience majorly in metros could be
premiered online for Indian audience.
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