Bollywood Embraces Kazaa Movie Downloads 522
MaximusTheGreat writes "While Hollywood tries to debate how to tackle P2P movie downloads, Bollywood the world's largest film industry has decided to embrace it. This could usher in a new era of legal movie downloads like iTunes for music, as Bollywood, the Indian film industry produces 1000 movies a year and outstrips hollywood by almost 3:1. Theaters worldwide sold some 3.6 billion tickets to Bollywood films last year, compared with Hollywood's 2.6 billion. In revenue terms Bollywood is already larger than the British, Hong Kong, Japanese and Italian movie industry and is growing at a very fast rate."
my roommate in college (Score:3, Interesting)
2 boys, separated at birth, fall in love with the same woman, except one is rich/ powerful/ a cop and the other is poor/ a farmer/ a thief... they fight each other for the woman, and there is much singing and dancing throughout
he said that is basically every movie made in bollywood
They've done what? (Score:3, Interesting)
Either way, it IS a good step, and great news.
Damon,
Re:India (Score:3, Interesting)
Not unless they figure out how to think as one nation [blogspot.com] instead of several chauvinistic states. Oh, and get rid of the pork-bellied [indianexpress.com] ruling class that has held the country back so far.
Bad plots (Score:2, Interesting)
99% of the stories in Bollywood have this same plot line and seriously, it's amazing they chalk up 3.6 billion tickets.
This won't work (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not saying this is a bad idea...I'm just saying it won't work with Bollywood movies.
Finally someone understands (Score:5, Interesting)
Here is a thriving industry (The Indian and Pakistani film groups) offering their goods online to make them available to those who live in geographical areas that would not normally be accessible. It eliminates videotape piracy which is rampant in this marketplace and allows fans access to the content. Why have the Bollywood chiefs picked this up and the American and British Music Industry dropped the ball. Was it pressure from their distributors? Lack of knowledge of the internet? No method of micropayments?
I would really like to know why it took a hardware manufacturer to bring in a system of legal digital content delivery (Apple and iTunes).
It also is good to see one of the largest and most productive media producers embracing digital video distribution. This completely jumps the gun on Hollywood and leaves the North American producers playing catch-up.
Fantastic News (Score:3, Interesting)
And while we're at it get hollywood doing the same. Sunday I wanted to watch about schmidt but not badly enough to go to the video store. They have taken a few quid off me if I could have downloaded it there and then. P2P isn't at threat it's a distribution method. With or without DRM there are plenty of people willing to pay for the convenience of media downloads.
Re:Bad plots (Score:1, Interesting)
Isn't that like saying that every American movie is about a tough guy who wants to be with the woman/family/whatever he loves but is drawn away by responsibility?
This is exactly the plot of some Hollywood films (e.g. Casablanca, any number of war movies, even films like The Godfather and Citizen Kane in a way). But you could reduce the plots of other films to that level. Examples: The Matrix trilogy is "about" the romance between Neo and Trinity, the Lord of the Rings trilogy is "about" the romance between Aragorn and Arwen.
See what I'm saying? Is what you described the plot of all those Bollywood movies, or merely a common subplot?
Re:Do demographics factor in? (Score:3, Interesting)
For the lower class, movie tickets are dirt cheap. But this cheap ticket gets you standing room only, right in front of the screen, with thousands of other cheap ticket holders.
If you can afford it, expensive tickets land you a seat in the balcony, where you don't have to rub elbows with everyone else.
By this design, the movies are more of a social gathering than a film experience. Numerous comments have mentioned how every Bollywood film is the same plot. This is true, because nobody cares about the movies that much. As long as there is song/dance, it makes good background noise for socialization.
Because films are already necessarily cheap, and the films themselves are not very meaningful, I doubt the Indian movie industry has much to lose from Kazaa. This is only good news for the US, as it is yet another sign that Hollywood is quite broken.
Re:Nukes? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm hoping that you're kidding, but in case you're not...
http://www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/data.html [csi.ad.jp]
Re:it was a joke (Score:3, Interesting)
Er, have to disagree with you there, in the strongest possible terms, I'm afraid. If you're talking about mainstream Hollywood films, then I'm constantly shocked at the lack of "boobs and sex" in them, compared to, say, European, or even British, Cinema. I think it's getting worse, too. I'm sure that there used to be more nudity in hollywood films, say fifteen years ago. This is a worrying trend. Violence is getting more acceptable, and wholesome natural human "boobs and sex" less so.
Bollywood Stats (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, Bollywood does not make 1000 movies a year. Indian film industry does make 1000 movies a year. The difference is that Bollywood (based in Mumbai earlier known as Bombay) is focussed primarily on Hindi movies. However, this constitutes maybe a third to a half of the 1000 movies a year. There are other languages / locations which make movies by the dozens and that make up the rest of the numbers. Most of the Southern states, which incidentally do not have Hindi as their primary language, have factories chruning regional language films. Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam and (I think) Kannada movies are made to the tune of 50-100 per year. There are other languages contributing a smaller share.
Irrespective of whether the movie is Hindi, or one of the regional movies, they all do have similar formulaes. 95% of the movies adopt romance / action formula, with maybe less than 5% movies trying to do something different.
However, Hindi movies are the ones which are known globally historically and people get the mis-impression that all Bollywood is Indian Movies (which is right), and all Indian movies are Bollywood (which is wrong).
Re:India (Score:3, Interesting)
The single biggest factor that made America great was that America found the right amound of economic and social freedom to allow entreprenuers to innovate and grow their businesses. This was the result, in large part, from inheriting the individualism alive in British culture, but stripping the aristocratic tradition out of it. Judging by the Indian nationals that I know, the future is very bright. The entreprenuerial spririt is alive and well in India, and I expect that they will be a world class economic power in less than 50 years, likely outstripping the EU.
I'm not sure what role India will play diplomatically or militarily. Because of the ongoing conflict in the Kashmir, it will be difficult for India to play any sort of "mediator" role in the Muslim world. I suspect that as long as the US remains a proponent of free trade, India will be content to be a regional power, letting the US spend most of the money to patrol the shipping lanes while India reasp the benefits.
In short, I don't forsee a long term strategic interest that puts India and the US into conflict, so why would they spend excessively to compete militarily.
China, on the other hand...
Re:Do demographics factor in? (Score:2, Interesting)
They may not go out and buy internet access or new computers and modems, but I see a hella opportunity to sell burnt DVDs or VHS tapes at $2-3 a pop. Get the discs/tapes in bulk offline, burns for a few weeks, get out of the business before you get busted, end up with a few thousand (thinking dollars here). Now that's a quick recipe for a new BMW.
Re:India (Score:2, Interesting)
We weren't all that marvelous. We were simply out of bomber range.
extra, extra! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Bollywood movies are terrible, though. (Score:2, Interesting)
For me, that's the best thing. It's good old-fashioned escapist entertainment. I've never had as much fun in a British cinema as I have in packed, steaming cinemas in India, howling with laughter at the jokes, screaming boos and hissing at the moustache-twirling Bad Guy, roaring and cheering as the Good Guy gets The Girl and Kills the Baddies, clapping to the beats and singing along with the choruses. Don't need to know a word of Maratha or Kannada or Tamil or Hindu to get what's going on.
None of this 'sshhh, don't rustle that popcorn' nonsense. Less like an orchestral concert, more like a moshpit with a big screen.
Lagaan, on the other hand, is a wonderfully-crafted work of subtle beauty that can easily hold its head up high alongside Casablanca in my book. Plus some great music and dancing, natch.
Bollywood FAQs by Richard Corliss (Time) (Score:2, Interesting)
Try his other article [time.com] too.
Interesting observations from a westerner about Indian movies.
Re:India (Score:3, Interesting)
Aid for Israel is mostly (like 60%) military aid. That dollar turns right around and ends up back stateside in the pockets of Boeing, Grumman, etc.
If there is an Insightful Troll, look no further than the parent post.