From celluloid to cellular

Mauj exploits films to drive its mobile content business

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Madhuri Dixit fans, rejoice. The glamourous star may not be returning to films just yet but she's now available on your mobile phone screen. Courtesy Rajshri Films and wireless content company Mauj, Dixit will be downloadable on your cell in her Hum Aapke Hain Kaun avataar.

That is not all. Based on the all-time favourite film, for the first time, traditional Indian games such as 'hide the shoe', 'pass the pillow' have been recreated for the mobile phone users. Within a month of their launch, the games have registered 10,000 downloads at Rs 150 a piece.

Mauj has also lined up a special treat for mobile users for the Republic Day. It is making available games based on Ketan Mehta's film "" 1857: The Rising. Clearly, the company is in a mood to exploit the popularity of Hindi cinema and use it to drive its mobile games business. Its tie up with Rajshri Films envisages content development for all the properties (including films like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon) from the film company's stable as well as its distribution.

A part of the People Interactive group, which owns Shaadi.com, Fropper.com and other technology businesses, Mauj was founded in 2003 by Anupam Mittal and Arun Gupta.

Mauj offers services in three areas: Mobile content & applications (games, wallpapers, ringtones, news, matrimonials), mobile software & services (middleware solutions, roaming applications, SMS Gateways) as well as mobile media solutions such as advertising and branding opportunities. The company has developed partnerships with more than 25 operators and portals worldwide.

After working on individual films, Mauj realised that Bollywood is big in India, and promptly tied up with studios like Rajshri, Varma Corporation and filmmaker Harry Baweja to get exclusive games, wallpapers, theme and ringtone rights for their productions.

For the new film Dil Maange More, the company has even designed a contest where gamers get to win dates with the three leading ladies in the film.

"We have 85 people who have developed 120 indigenous game titles for the users," says Arun Gupta, Mauj's chief operating officer.

Before joining Mauj, Gupta was at the helm of business at Yahoo India for six years. Apart from the games the company makes, it holds the license for another 800 international game titles, for which it has the rights to for India, West Asia and Africa.

"As cellular penetration increases, content would need to adapt itself. So even for the hinterland consumer, we have content from a film like Nadiya Ke Paar, and already it's selling in small towns," says Gupta.

Clearly, Gupta isn't restricting his vision to cellular subscribers in Mumbai alone. He is also working with Hutch to promote content for the Kannada film Aham Premasmi.

However, the company is aware that competiton in the mobile content market is bound to heat up. So Mauj has gone ahead and explored the mobile software segment, wherein users can, at Rs 200 a piece, download software like Camera FX, which allows the user to enhance the features of his camera phone. This could include getting psychedellic colours, increase in zoom capability etc.

Today, Mauj, with its basket of options, clocks around 100,000 downloads a day, priced in the Rs 10 to Rs 100 bracket. Other than films, it is also hawking wallpapers for Valentine's Day.

And with its international offices in place in the UAE, Phillipines, UK and the US, the young company expects to grow at 200 per cent over the next three quarters, with, hopefully, more films beaming into your cellphones.