CHENNAI: Pirated DVDs may have just met their match. Despite such videodisks being available on the grey market within 48 hours of movie releases, when given the option of having a Tamil film’s DVD delivered home on the day of its release - a whopping 64 per cent of people would say ‘aye’ without a second thought, according to a study. In an extensive survey undertaken by Cheran’s Cinema2Home (C2H) enterprise, people from across the State have shown interest in the company’s concept, as they have been vigorously campaigning door-to-door.
“The response to the survey and to our campaign has been promising and we will begin giving pre-order forms for our first release from January 1,” said Nivedha Priyadharshini, managing director of C2H.
Having launched in September, C2H has built a distributor network of 154, who in turn control 5,000 distributors across TN. “When our teams reached out to do the survey with questions like whether they would pay to buy a genuine DVD or they’d take an annual subscription for say `2,000, a lot of people immediately said yes,” she said. One of their distributors from Anna Nagar, while canvassing for the movie service, went on to explain why it was gaining ground.
“There are torrents and pirated DVDs available in addition to TV. But we have realised that movies are a primary form of entertainment in every household - and getting a good print on release day is a lucrative option,” said the distributor.
With few cable operators working for them - a majority of their dealers have IT backgrounds we’re told - C2H is gearing up to handle its first release this Pongal, Cheran’s JK Enum Nanbanin Vazhkai, which has been ready for under a year now. After the company does a run with pre-orders, it will start the process of offering movies on release day via the Internet and Set Top Boxes - for people in other states. And unlike Kamal Haasan’s row with theatre owners when he attempted to release Viswaroopam on home video, plenty of producers are behind this venture.
“With our distribution line on release day, people will get to see the film even before it can be copied and uploaded or sold. So our purpose is served,” said Priyadharshini.