As a student at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, in 2012, Pradeep VS had limited access to Tamil movies. At the theatre, only select movies would run for a short period of time, and torrents available were of poor quality. It was an unfortunate situation for a movie buff like him. “That is where the idea for Hero Talkies (HT) originated — to connect Tamil audiences around the world through Tamil movies and TV shows with original content,” says 29-year-old Pradeep.
Based in Chennai, Pradeep, a Chartered Accountant and MBA degree-holder, who is the CEO and ‘resident strategist’ of Hero Talkies, started the business with his brother Aathitiyan VS, the COO, who works on business ideation and fund raising. Prior to HT, Pradeep worked as a Management Consultant. Aathitiyan heads content acquisition and client negotiations. He is an engineering graduate. The portal was launched officially on July 9 by director K Balachander on his birthday, Pradeep tells edex excitedly. Their first major release was Arima Nambi on July 17.
“The USP of Hero Talkies is high-speed, HD quality original content — in free (ad-supported) and paid (membership or per movie `49) models. What’s most appealing is that this is completely legal. We have tie-ups with producers to make movies available online to reduce piracy.”
The duo is working on building relations with the movie industry to help them understand the benefits of a portal like this, where producers can ensure they don’t lose money because of piracy by opting to release movies on the portal a week after the theatre release. While Hero started with Tamil movies, they would like to expand to Malayalam, Telugu and other south Indian languages.
Whether it is 80’s or 90’s hits you want, like Punnagai Mannan, Roja or Annamalai, or newer movies like Thanga Meengal, Thuppakki or Naduvule Konjam Pakkathey Kaanum, you will find a collection of 75 movies to pick from (one that is being updated every day). You can also pick movies based on actor preferences, genres and time periods. They even have the 1964 MGR-starrer Vettaikaran. They have signed up for an additional 530 movies. “As the site is stable now, we will be adding the rest of the movies next month. So, watch out!” says Pradeep.
Whether it is a big screen TV, or your 5-inch phablet, any time you want to watch Tamil movies, without the guilt of succumbing to piracy or risking damage to your system with bad quality CDs, the Hero comes to the rescue. Sign up at www.herotalkies.com.
Preethi@newindianexpress.com