India's largest Video-on-Demand site will now share Bollywood movies with Hulu.
www.broadband.bigflix.com, a part of Reliance BIG Entertainment, India’s largest Video-on-Demand website and content aggregator has announced that it will bring Bollywood movies to Hulu, an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites, anytime in the U.S. This will be the first ever association for BIGFlix.com in terms of content sharing in the international market targeting the South Asian population and non-NRIs.
The recent success of movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” in the international market suggests that that worldwide audience appreciates Bollywood movies that encapsulate elements of both Bollywood “masala” and “parallel” cinema. Keeping this in mind, the BIGFlix-Hulu content association will kick start by offering 12 Bollywood movies that encompass similar elements, themes and issues. All the movies will have English subtitles so it appeals to others besides South Asians.
At launch, BIGFlix.com will offer four Bollywood movies for free viewing on Hulu:
- Gangster (2006): The name Gangster gives one the misconception that it's a violent film. The movie makes you surrender to its charm due to its rich emotional appeal, not gunpowder.
- Apaharan (2005): Famous director Prakash Jha comes up with yet another movie that raises a socially relevant issue – that of kidnappings. While kidnapping is supposed to be an incident of crime for ransom, in certain Indian states like Bihar it has become a proper, well-organized industry.
- Kalyug (2005): is an Indian Hindi movie about the pornographic film industry The film throws light at not just on the India porn industry, but also deals issues such as prostitution, and human trafficking. (Note: there is no pornography in the movie).
- Black Friday (2004): This film is about the terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in Mumbai, India, in 1993.
Other movies for free viewing to be launched in subsequent months include: 13B (2009), Summer 2007 (2008), Love Songs –Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (2008), Khoya Khoya Chand (2007), 15 Park Avenue (2005), Love Story 2050 (2008), Jan-E-Mann (2006), and Family-Ties of Blood (2005)
Speaking on the occasion of this new association, Mr. Preetam Shah, Head- International markets and Business Development, BIGFlix.com, said, “We are very excited about our first foray in the international market in terms of content sharing with a dominant player like Hulu, which serves more than 38 million users on a monthly basis and offers more than 400 million video streams. Mr. Murtuza Kagalwala, Head of VOD and Ad Sales, BIGFlix.com added, “This is a great beginning for us to expand our international reach and we plan to continue bringing quality content to South Asians worldwide via multiple platforms and distribution channels.”
Mr. Kamal Gianchandani, COO, BIGFlix.com, said “Our tie-up with Hulu will be our very first significant step to avail Indian content to the international audiences. To start with, we will offer 12 popular and recent Indian movies on Hulu. We are also adding another 500 titles to our large collection of titles at BIGFlix.com. We will continue to partner with leading platforms like Hulu to reach vast number of audiences around the world.”
About BIGFlix.com
BIGFlix Video-on-Demand currently has 1500 titles on its platform which includes latest Bollywood movies, old time Hindi movies, world cinema and regional movies in 13 Indian languages. www.broadband.BIGFlix.com has innovative, convenient and cost-effective entertainment making Indian cinema, television and music accessible to more than 25 million strong overseas Non Resident Indian (NRI), South Asian population and Indian cinema lovers the world over. The company offers the download to rent and subscription services in its portfolio of operations as well. The website records 16 million page views, 10 million and 3 million unique visitors all on month-on-month basis.