DVD is taking off in India................................
economictimes.com
Digital takes Bollywood closer to foreign fans
Sorab Ghaswalla
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MUMBAI 27 DECEMBER
NO LONGER do pardesi's have to wait infinitely for the latest Bollywood blockbuster to arrive into town, wherever that is. Indian diaspora, or other Bollywood freaks for that matter, can book or rent legal copies on the sophisticated Digital Video/ Versatile Disc (DVD) format from websites providing the service within days of the film's India release.
A handful of sites are already catering to demands of Hindi film audiences in Europe and the US. Industry sources said, more and more Indian producers and distributors were getting into the business.
Foreign audiences now wait for a week at the most to get copies of the latest Shah Rukh Khan or Kajol release. A case in point was Mani Ratnam's Dil Se, which was available soon after its release in India.
Incidentally, the movie was a major hit in London, though it did not fare well at the box office in India.
Even as the awareness in India grows, newer films are now being released on DVD for home viewing, much faster than they used to during the VHS days, those in the know said.
One such, the Digital Entertainment Inc (DIE), promises to deliver Hindi films to audiences anywhere in North America.
DIE has recently signed an exclusive contract with Eros International, one of the largest international film distributors for Indian movies, for the North American territory.
Sandish Mann, one of the partners of the firm, told The Economic Times, each DVD sells in the US anywhere between $20-25 which means that Hindi films on the DVD format are available at roughly around Rs 800.
Those Indian audiences whose home theatre systems are equipped with DVD playback too can enjoy films on this format by ordering the DVDs from some websites.
DVD, introduced around a year ago, is now being touted as the new medium for home entertainment. In the US, DVD now reportedly outsells VHS players in some regions.
DVD allows playback of MPEG-II encoded video. MPEG-II is the next generation of video compression following MPEG-I, which was used for Video Compact Discs (VCDs).
MPEG-II uses a compression technology that takes component digital signals and compresses them at a very high ratio. In short, a DVD produces a picture that rivals the master print and also permits multi-channel digital audio.
For those Indian theatre-goers familiar with words like Dolby digital sound, DVD assures the delivery of the same Dolby Digital 5.1 audio surround sound in the home theatre system.
Examples of this are films like Dil Se, Ghulam and Border which deliver Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in your drawing rooms. In short, CDs have been rendered obsolete by DVDs, according to some experts.
Firms like DIE find distributing Hindi film DVDs an attractive business. DIE was floated by two others along with Mr Mann -Harwinder Bisla and Kamal Mann.
Their primary business was and still is real estate business development in California. For the trio, it has been a long way from building gas stations and shopping centres to hawking films.
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