Heyy baby the popular Bollywood flick which was launched Some time in August this year is now ‘Officially’ available online.

Usres can download the complete original movie just for $ 9.99 or can even pay 2.99 for a 48-hour rental.

Coming form an Indian Production House, its quite surprising, I personally did not expect it for some time.

I see such an activity catching on in India. It’s the best option for filmmakers once their movie is out of the theater. Dvds do bring in revenue but why not make also leverage the online medium. Although it was a pretty popular movie I don’t think we can expect too many downloads as I feel its still early days for India. But none the less this trend will soon catch up and will certainly become a steady revenue source for film makers.

Steps like these will be a boon for the NRI users, as this makes perfect sense for them as they can view and store their favorite movies without purchasing DVDs from India or downloading from P2P networks.

The few problems I foresee are –

1. Speed Limitations - a $9.99 fee makes sense but a $2.99 for 48 hr rental?? I am not sure how that might work! If in case its streaming then I really doubt there will be too many takers such a fee model unless you have T3 connection or something similar.

2. Piracy Issues – Once downloaded, copies can be easily made by anyone anywhere. Although the movie make a online release much after the theatre release, you can still expect a lot of piracy.

3. Price – the $9.99 fee maybe fine for the NRi’s, but filmmakers will have to reduce the costs going ahead if they really want to exploit the online medium especially in the Indian cities including the smaller ones which can bring good revenue. How about having a subscription based model. Pay a one time fee either monthly, quarterly or annually and get unlimited access to all the movies.

I think it’s a much required initiative and I am very glad that people from all walks of life are recognizing the online potential and taking advantage of the medium. Talking about Movies.. the TG is everywhere. Right from a small village in south to Seattle in USA, everyone is a Bollywood fan. Piracy will be a big issue, but then again it always has been an issue.

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