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Bollywood Embraces Kazaa Movie Downloads

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."

25 of 522 comments (clear)

  1. No kidding, Spanky. by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Hollywood has been slow to embrace downloads

    Understatement of the year.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. Bollywood movies are terrible, though. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    A good analog would be if iTunes only offered JPop.

    1. Re:Bollywood movies are terrible, though. by Frymaster · · Score: 4, Funny
      Think of the most predictable dross about a boy and a girl you can, add in a load of songs

      and hollywood doesn't make trash? man, i've got three words for you:

      1. beverely
      2. hills
      3. ninja
  3. C'mon you KNOW you were thinking of this.... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hooray for Bollywood
    That screwy, ballyhooey Bollywood!
    Where any office boy
    Or young mechanic
    can be a panic
    With just a good-looking pan
    And any barmaid
    Can be a star maid
    If she dances with or without a fan
    Hooray for Bollywood!
    Where you're terrific
    if you're even good!
    Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple
    to Aimee Semple
    is equally understood
    Come on and try your luck
    You could be Donald Duck
    Hooray for Bollywood!

    Hooray for Bollywood!
    That phony, super Coney, Bollywood
    They come from Chilicothes and Padukahs
    with their bazookas
    To see their names up in lights
    All armed with photos
    From local rotos
    With their hair in curlers
    and legs in tights
    Hooray for Bollywood!
    You may be homely in your neighborhood.
    Still, if you think that you can be an actor
    See Mister Factor
    He'd make a monkey look good!
    Within a half an hour
    You'll look like Tyrone Power
    Hooray for Bollywood!

    1. Re:C'mon you KNOW you were thinking of this.... by TobyWong · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Let me guess you were in the drama club. Probably got a dance routine to go along with it too.

      --
      - Toby
    2. Re:C'mon you KNOW you were thinking of this.... by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're lucky this probably falls under the parody clause (for now) of the copyright laws or you'd have some RIAA lawyer on your ass right about now.

  4. But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    at least SOME films that come out of Hollywood show traces of originality and thinking outside the box. Every Bollywood film i've seen on TV could've been created with some sort of VB app.

  5. Bollywood by Esion+Modnar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well... since they have them beat on quantity, they must have them beat on quality.

    --

    They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
  6. Outsourcing by IPFreely · · Score: 4, Funny

    It looks like the tech industry isn't the only one being outsourced to India.

    --
    There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
  7. Bollywood by kjba · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like this Bollywood thing bas a buge and beroic future abead.

  8. Now... by Fizzlewhiff · · Score: 5, Funny

    Only if I was fluent in Hindi and enjoyed musicals.

    --

    'Same speed C but faster'
  9. Do demographics factor in? by Helmholtz+Coil · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I wonder if maybe one factor driving their decision was demographics, or the perceptions of demographics.

    It almost seems as though Bollywood's perception is that their core Indian market won't be affected by offering the movies online-the original article quotes something like 1 million out of 1 billion people in India have Internet access. So from their point of view, putting movies online can't really parasitize their existing market because it isn't connected. So they can only win-even if somebody finds a way around any protection on the movies, it still can only increase their customer base to reach people they haven't been able to in the past. In other words, even if only 1 out of 100 people actually buy the movie rather than watch any cracked version, that's still 1 more customer than they would have had otherwise.

    In contrast, Hollywood seems to perceive their customers as more connected Internet-wise, and so putting movies online will parasitize their existing market. Using the same 1 out of 100 people idea, Hollywood sees it as losing 99 rather than gaining 1.

    I'm not saying either or both is right or wrong, it just seems to me to be a difference in how each sees their core market.
  10. Re:my roommate in college by mirko · · Score: 4, Informative
    He obviously has not seen
    • Devdas (modern Romeo&Juliet like),
    • Lagaan(cricket against the Brits)
    • nor even Monsoon wedding (she prepairs to get married with a guy she doesn't know)...

    • Where are the testosteroned rivals, here ?
    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  11. Re:my roommate in college by .!.+(0.o)+.!. · · Score: 5, Funny
    every bollywood movie has the same plot
    you mean like Hollywood movies?
  12. This won't work by andy1307 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    AS any ethnic Indian living in the US will tell you, you can walk into an Indian grocery store and rent a pirated video cassette for the latest Bollywood flock for 2$ or less. This way, people can watch the movie on their big screen TVs instead of waiting for the movie to download and then watching it on your computer.

    I'm not saying this is a bad idea...I'm just saying it won't work with Bollywood movies.

  13. Only one problem by arvindn · · Score: 4, Informative
    (I'm Indian) I read about this a couple of weeks back. Apparently the number of downloads was 200. Not surprising: internet availability among home users is ridiculously low in India, 0.4% dialup and 0.02% broadband. Its increasing, but slowly.

    But on the other hand maybe movie distribution will become the killer app for broadband in India :)

  14. it was a joke by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    of course bollywood makes lots of different movies

    but an indian can make fun of his nation's movie industry if he wants to, just like americans like to say hollywood is too liberal/ too gun crazy, when the truth is of course more complex

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  15. How to cut costs in Bollywood? by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe they should outsource to America.

    --
    Bowie J. Poag

  16. The article is misleading. by karmaflux · · Score: 4, Informative

    "India produces as many as 1,000 movies each year with revenues of more than $1 billion." -- The Globe and Mail
    This indicates revenue of a million a movie; that's a paltry sum which no American movie house would bother with.

    "Bollywood's global annual revenues, estimated at $1.3 billion this year, are small change compared with Hollywood's $51 billion." --Business Week
    This shoots down the other misdirection in the article. Sell all the tickets you want, Bollywood. You're still pulling less than 1/39th the cash that Hollywood takes in.

    A lot of people watch these movies. I have seen a few. To a film, they were insipid. Do yourselves a favor and avoid the musicals at all costs.
    But don't worry. They're not going to take over the film industry.

    --

    REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.

  17. Things You Would Never Know Without Indian Movies by tcak · · Score: 5, Funny
    I might be off-topic, but what the hell....

    Introducing Things You Would Never Know Without Watching Bollywood Movies

    1. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to cleanse his wounds.
    2. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.
    3. The hero cannot fall in love with the heroine (vice versa) unless they first perform a dance number in the rain.
    4. Once applied, make-up is permanent, in rain or in any other situation.
    5. Village girls who live among cows and sheep have perfect skin and teeth.
    6. A large group of goondoos can be shooting at the hero, but he will never be hit, unless of course he is attempting to save the heroine.
    7. A large group of goondoos can be shooting at the hero with machine guns, yet they will always miss. Every shot the hero takes from his small revolver will knock down at least ten opponents in a line.
    8. If you decide to start dancing in a field, everyone you bump into will know all the steps, and will be wearing coordinated outfits.
    9. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts-your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
    10. A heroine will have time to change outfits several times in one song, however short.
    11. In the final scene, the hero will discover that the bad guy who he is up against is actually his brother and the maid who looked after him is his mother and the chief inspector is his father and the Judge is his uncle and so forth.
    12. 2 people can be dancing in the desert and out of nowhere, 100 people will appear from god-knows-where and joins them in the dance.
  18. Re:India by TheMidget · · Score: 4, Funny
    India is truley a rising nation, it remind s me very much of the United States.

    I think in another 50 years that India will be beside the US in terms of being a world superpower. In a hundred it will be the most powerful nation in the world.

    And in 200, it will conquer Texas for its petrol... Yeah!
  19. Finally someone understands by mr_lithic · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The main driver behind P2P downloading is not price. It is availability.

    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.

  20. Re:Bad plots by dema · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yea, and than you have the Hollywood model

    1. EXPLOSION!
    2. GUN FIGHT!
    3. Advertisement
    4. EXPLOSION!
    5. GUN FIGHT!

  21. the outdated stereotype of liberals in hollywood by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    liberals hate guns

    so it's a contraction i was trying to show: either hollywood is too liberal in which case there are no war movies, all problems are solved without violence, and no one carries a gun (not true at all), or it isn't liberal

    so hollywood clearly is not liberal

    hollywood is what it is: an industry maximized to project to americans what they want to see, so whatever you call hollywood is twisting the truth of what it is

    you cannot blame hollywood for sex and violence in their films, you have to blame the amercian public: that's what they want to see, they vote with their pocketbooks

    hollywood makes movies to make money, not political statements

    you can't move into hollywood, change how it works, and suddenly change humanity. humanity is in control of hollywood through their pocket books, not vice versa.

    but certain segments of society think they can control hollywood and therefore change ugly sides of humanity, because they think that hollywood is somehow in control of what people think. that's a logical fallacy of not understanding how the cause and effect relationship between the movie and the audience actually works.

    conservatives complaing about the liberal media went out of vogue as soon as fox news grabbed ratings, so your complaint against "liberal" hollywood is outdated and contrived

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  22. Re:India by Frymaster · · Score: 5, Informative
    Israel was only formed recently, thanks to a British grant and UN intercession, yet is a world power today.

    israel is a "world power" because it is completely propped up with american handouts. the state of israel is the single biggest recipient of american foreign aid. thrity per cent of all u.s. foreign aid money goes there. thirty percent! that's $3billion a year.

    not hard to be a "world power" with those kinds of freebies.

    oh yeah, here's my source... and here and here