With a billion Bollywood-loving citizens in India, and millions more scattered around the world in the Indian diaspora, Rajjat Barjatya decided that offering movie downloads for $4.99 each was not a bad idea. So in late December, the entrepreneur’s digital media company, Mumbai-based Rajshri.com, became the first Indian site to make several full-length movies available online.
In fact, online delivery of movies and television is starting to take off in India. Bangalore-based Seventymm, a company with a model similar to Netflix which rents DVDs through its web site, attracted $10 million in venture capital last September from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Matrix Partners. Madhouse Media, a New Delhi-based movie rental company with both online and offline components, received $228,000 in early January from the Band of Angels, a New Delhi-based group of experienced entrepreneurs who personally invest in and mentor startups. Both companies are acquiring content rights from several sources.
Mr. Barjatya won’t reveal how many have forked over $4.99 for a download, but he believes he’s in the right place at the right time. Here’s why: India produces over 800 films a year in over 30 languages. People who can’t make it to the theater can pay $5 to $10 to purchase a VCD or DVD or rent the film for under a dollar.
However, most rental shops stock only pirated discs with abysmally low quality. “Delivering content directly to the consumer is a good way to beat piracy and ensure quality service,” Mr. Barjatya says.
Other companies are thinking along the same lines. Moser Baer, until recently known as the world’s second-largest producer of optical storage discs, has formed an entertainment business division that will offer content-loaded discs priced at under a dollar. Based in Noida near New Delhi, the unit has secured the rights for 7,000 movie titles. Loading them onto discs for the first batch of 400 distributors is proving to be a logistical nightmare, says Harish Dayani, CEO of the entertainment business of Moser Baer, “but we believe Indians deserve to have quality entertainment at home.”
So, will Indian consumers prefer to download a movie from Rajshri for $4.99, rent a DVD from Seventymm for half the price, or buy a DVD from Moser Baer for under a dollar and build their own libraries? In a country of a billion film buffs, all three options may eventually find enough takers.
-—Kalpana Shah