Word: bollywood
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bollywood is widely known as the world's most prolific movie industry, with about 1,000 films produced every year. But its audience is also one of the most far-ranging: Indian films are watched in more than a hundred countries, their fan base drawn from the 25 million Indians working abroad as well as moviegoers from Southeast Asia to Africa for whom Shah Rukh Khan is as big a star as Brad Pitt...
...take weeks before a Bollywood hit reaches foreign markets, if it's shown at all, and that gap between demand and supply is often filled by piracy. Industry insiders estimate that as much as 33% of Indian film companies' revenues are lost to piracy each year, with many of the counterfeits going to foreign markets. Now, two major Bollywood studios aim to change that by making films directly available, via download, to the vast overseas market that contributes a fifth of the industry's revenues...
...While a handful of third-party sites already offer digital downloads of Bollywood films, Rajshri Group and Eros Entertainment hope to do it on a scale never attempted before, allowing fans around the world to watch thousands of films, TV shows, music videos and more - much of it for free. "What is surprising is that no one in India has done it sooner," says Rajjat A. Barjatya, managing director of Rajshri Media, Rajshri Group's digital-media and entertainment arm. "This model hasn't worked for Hollywood because they are extremely protective of their content and their domestic market...
...Eros Entertainment, Bollywood's biggest distributor, also puts hundreds of titles from its library of 1,300 movies and 5,000 music videos online; the company is planning to launch a new venture later this month offering similar ad-supported and pay-per-view options. Eros also brokered a deal late last year to upload trailers, movie clips and music videos to YouTube; so far, its clips have been viewed 15 million times. "This showed us that there was a sizeable segment that would lap up ad-supported free content," says senior vice president Manu Kaushish...
...Barjatya, who estimates that about 90% of Rajshri's online videos are being watched overseas, says that someday "every Bollywood film will be released simultaneously in theaters and online." Kaushish believes the technology has the potential to change the industry itself. "Digital distribution will lower barriers to entry for independent filmmakers," he says. "They will be able to market their content without the expense of distribution to cinema halls." Still, theaters will remain movies' primary outlet for a while yet; less than 1% of Indians have access to the high-speed Internet connections that make downloads practical. Eventually, the technology...