Tech Shout!

Reliance certainly seems to be making its presence felt in the Entertainment sphere on the Internet. Some time ago, Reliance ADA Group came out with a gaming portal called Zapak.com and just a few weeks ago the company launched ‘BigAdda.com’ an Indian Youth Networking site. And now, the group rolled out its online movie downloading service called BigFlicks.com.

BigFlicks offers a huge range of quality Indian entertainment in various languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and Kannada.

Reliance ADAG is mainly targeting this online download service at the NRIs from all over the world who want access to Indian television and cinema.

According to Mr.Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, BigFlicks, “We seek to connect our NRI users especially in North America, the UK, Canada, West Asia, South-East Asia, Europe and Australia, with our vast and expanding libraries of quality video entertainment content.”

The movies on BigFlicks.com are available either as ‘download-to-own’ or for ‘free streaming’. Besides, reliance also plans to off ‘download-to-rent’ and ‘subscription’ services.

BigFlick.com users will be able to purchase these Indian movie titles online at prices ranging from $2 to $16.

“Our target is to offer at least 2,000 titles in 12 months from the date of launch,” added Mr.Gianchandani.

The other revenue model of BigFlicks will be the physical lending of CDs and DVDs. Reliance also plans to open around 100 stores in the top 50 Indian cities in phases, with Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Pune being the privileged cities to see such shops open by September-end.

BigFlicks movie rental service with home delivery is expected to be rolled out by September.

Rajesh Sawhney, president, Reliance Entertainment added: “In mature economies, the demand for home entertainment is increasing with the rising income level. A typical Hollywood movie generates more revenues through home entertainment than through theatrical distribution, while in India home entertainment contributes in low single digits to a movie’s revenue. That is because we lack effective home entertainment platforms.”

It was also formally announced that Reliance ADAG would exclusively be launching UTV’s “Fear” movie through its newly opened BigFlicks.com Web site.

Mr. Kulmeet Makkar is the CEO of BIG Music and Home Entertainment, one of the divisions of Reliance Entertainment. He says that the company is currently is talks with a number of leading labels to buy out their entire catalogue.

“The acquisition is likely to happen within three to five months’ time,” Makkar confirmed.

In fact, Big Flicks has already acquired its first music and home video rights to the Tamil film Kireedam, which was followed by the Bollywood film Cash. Other films that are yet in the pipeline include Marigold and Prakash Jha’s Dil Dosti and Khoya Khoya Chand.