The Hindu Business Line : Hollywood movies preferred for DVD rentals: BigFlix.com

Chennai, Oct. 24 If you think Hindi movies are the most popular among customers in the DVD rentals business, think again. Hollywood movies are rented in greater numbers because they tend not to have big releases in India, says Mr Kamal Gianchandani, Chief Operating Officer, BigFlix.com.

The DVD rentals company, part of Reliance Big Entertainment, has completed a year of operations. Speaking on the learnings, Mr Gianchandani said their assumption that Hindi movies would fare better did not turn out to be true. The reason for that is the widespread release that they get as well as the quality of the content which does not make it amenable to repeat viewing. Further, these movies sooner or later make it to television and people would rather see it on TV and not pay for it over and over. In the case of Hollywood movies, however, this is not the case and viewers would love to see their favourite movies on the DVD more than once, he said.

Pushing studios

BigFlix is pushing studios both in India and in the US to release their films for the home entertainment market quicker than ever, Mr Gianchandani said. It is also urging them to produce back titles. In fact, it has a ‘recommendation engine’ on the portal through which customers can ask for the movies of their choice to be stocked.

The company is planning to exploit its home delivery infrastructure in other ways. It is looking at couriering cinema tickets booked online through its Web site to customers. People, especially in the big cities, are going for convenient services in a big way, and don’t want to move out of their homes for too many things.

They would rather go to the cinema or a restaurant rather than pick up a movie at a DVD parlour, and that’s a positive ratification of what BigFlix assumed when it started out, Mr Gianchandani said.

BigFlix, which has 80,000 registered members, intends to have 200 stores functioning by the end of the financial year. It now has 120 stores and is present in 10 cities and stocks 20,000 titles and plans to add 10,000 more this year. Mr Gianchandani would not comment on the company’s share of the Rs 1,050-crore home video rental and sales market but said that he didn’t see any new players entering the market in the next one year because of current economic conditions.

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