Film fare

There’s just a few other things that feel half as good as stepping over people in a movie theatre,settling down with a bucket of popcorn,and slouching on reclining seats as songs and six packs,chiffons and punches explode on screen. Shahid-spotting in Dhen Te Na or Priyanka’s mid-riff in Desi Girl,while the appeal of the big screen can never be overrated,it’s also true that DVDs,mostly pirated,have muscled their way into a film-lover’s CD rack. Quite consistently at that. And not many can resist getting a movie just a click away. And thanks to sites like Dingora.com or Bigflix for that matter,one will not have to pray that the cheap 5-in-1 DVD doesn’t ruin the comp,or wait for months before the producers plan to release DVDs formally. Dingora,which will be launched in May this year,claims to be the country’s first premiere online movie theatre and will enable filmmakers to release movies online simultaneously with their big screen release and will operate in the pay-per-watch format. “Technology today has now matured enough to offer the filmmakers,solutions that are flexible,scalable and most importantly secure,while to the viewers,it has now reached a point where they can view HD quality movies on the internet. Dingora brings in a unique combination of in-house developed technology and in partnerships with major players in the IT industry to offer one click distribution of movies over the web to reach out to the broadest possible audience the very weekend of a movie’s release,” says Pankaj Sikka,CEO of Dingora.com.

While portals like Hulu,which allow viewers to watch movies following a simple registering and payment procedure,are a rage in the West,online movie releases are still dealing with teething troubles in India. “It’s difficult to say for sure how successful the format will be in India,but given that our generation survives on internet,it’s an exciting idea,” says actor-filmmaker Saurabh Shukla. “Also,such a facility is going to help a lot of small films which don’t have the kind of budget required for a worldwide release.”

Sikka adds that only 10 per cent of the films made in India are able to reach NRIs and Indian move lovers abroad the same Friday it is released in theatres. Something a site like Dingora aspires to address. Bigflix has tied up with Hula to take Indian films to viewers in America. “It has a library of 2000 films in 13 languages which are available both in India and abroad. You can either download a film,for which you pay with a credit card or watch it right away online for free. The latter is advertisement supported,” says Murtuza Kagalwala,business head,video-on-demand,Bigflix.com which was launched in 2007. Kagalwala attributes the success of online film viewing to the greater penetration of internet and dipping costs of broadbad connection. “Indian viewership has multiplied by seven times since we launched,” he adds.

Sikka’s also Dingora promises to be huge platform for Independent cinema,short films and documentaries. “Documentaries and short films will be available for pay per view and also as a package deal offered with feature films,” says Sikka. Shukla adds that while publicizing films burn a hole into small producers’ pockets,advertising on a site like Dingora will definitely be cheaper and more effective.

Sikka,who started PassionForCinema in 2006,also hopes to fight piracy with his distribution techniques. “This is the age of instant gratification and if we can’t beat piracy,lets reach out to our audience before piracy does,” says the US-based Sikka. Dingora already has more than two dozen films signed up for release on the site,more are in the pipeline.