CHENNAI: When people dream of movies, it is mostly about the fame and glamour of the reel world. But, Vivek Paul and Blaise M Crowly, two school friends and movie buffs took an intiative to release new movies by developing a new website, Reelmonk.com, so that people can watch and enjoy all regional cinema, anywhere in the world.
Reelmonk.com, created by Ireels Film Distributors, is promoted by Konglo Ventures. “We launched the platform on July 20, 2015 with 15 movies for users to download, including Nee-Na by Lal Jose and Njan Steve Lopez by Rajeev Ravi. An idea that originated over a midnight phone call with a friend today has over 50,000 users and over 350 films live on our platform.
After that, the journey has been long and exciting, full of challenges, setbacks, straight out crashes and amazing moments to cherish,” says Vivek Paul, CEO, Reelmonk.com. “Piracy happens due to non-availability of content. When content is easy to access at a reasonable price we believe piracy will take a back seat.”
That's why they created an application where users can download and watch the film but cannot copy or transfer it to a different device. “A lot of effort and sacrifice goes into creating a movie and it is shattering when piracy, lack of releasing platforms and other issues destroy this work. We want to be a platform where all movies can reach viewers at the click of a button,” said Blaise M Crowly, CTO of Reelmonk.com.
The movies are also protected from screen capture using a unique identification method using trackers on the screen. “With connected users, our platform enables movie producers to distribute their content to any country of their choice on the same day of its release in India,” he added.
Renowned director Jayaraj’s new film Ottaal became the first film in India to release online, through their platform, on the same day of it’s theatrical release in Kerala on November 6, 2016. Post the first release, they did four simultaneous releases through Reelmonk.com.
However, one major challenge the platform is facing is in bringing the latest releases before the CD/DVD releases. The CD/DVD release decreases the value of the film due to the availability of the films through pirated websites. “But this is slowly changing, with each new release and increase in our userbase we are able to convince more and more producers about the scope of Internet release,” Vivek added.
Reelmonk has been funded by a investment firm called Konglo ventures and further gotcapital from a couple of NRIs who were users of the product. “The fact that users are ready to invest in our company is a great validation of our idea for us. It shows that they truly understand the need of the product,” Vivek expressed. The startup has even received a soft loan from KSIDC.