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Flying high Kamal Gianchandani: ‘The industry is living through a golden age of sorts’

Armed with a blackberry and constantly taking calls and sending messages, Kamal Gianchandani, Chief Operating Officer of Bigflix.com seems a busy man. Ask him about Bigflix and his eyes light up, “It has been a great experience to be part of Bigflix. We basically aim to tap the domestic viewer base that buys movie DVDs etc. It is basically a movie rental service, available to subscribers for a fee of Rs. 299 per month. We also provide home delivery services to consumers in select cities.”

Ask him about the revenue model and he says: “Our revenue model per se is very complex. We draw our revenues from two main sources: from the DVD rentals and the streaming movies to users. Though the users are not charged for streaming videos, we manage to make money from the ads that appear during the duration of the movie. Our rental service is limited to only 10 cities in India, though we plan to set base in many cities soon.”

Kamal calls for an all out war against piracy. He says, “Video and audio piracy are the biggest threats our business are facing currently. We need stringent laws and enforced by the law-enforcing agencies.”

What about movie viewing habits of Indians, he says, “Hindi films rule the roost in the domestic market. Though we market films in 14 languages, Hindi movies are the most popular. Some English films are also popular in the metros. We plan to expand to the international market also.”

How is the DVD industry in India doing? “The industry is living through a golden age of sorts. Nowadays, due to fear of losing money, the gap between theatre release and DVD release has reduced considerably. Thus, they are easily available. Our endeavour is to make these films available to our patrons at low rates.”

NIKHIL VARMA

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