Bollywood to use EST mechanism to check on piracy

Mumbai: To check piracy, Bollywood is looking to use the Electronic Sell Through (EST) mechanism for the digital sale of films, according to a study by global advisory firm Deloitte.

Through EST, consumers can buy digital copies of films for unlimited viewing on demand via the Internet, mobile and cable in exchange of a transactional fee.

"The country's film industry continues to lose around Rs 50 billion in revenues and over 50,000 jobs every year due to piracy. India is one of the top countries witnessing peer-to-peer file-sharing infringement worldwide," the report said.

Although there is no immediate solution to curb piracy, the filmmakers are trying to counter the menace with increasing digitisation of the movie prints, it added.

In India, about 60 per cent of the box-office collections are made during the first week of release of a movie.

Digital cinema distribution firms are going for digital prints of the films, the report said.

"A big-budget Hindi movie, which would have been released earlier with 400 500 prints, now enjoys a wider release with almost 1,000-1,500 prints.

"Further, with an increasing demand for an alternative source of entertainment for the home audience, filmmakers will look at Digital EST and online VOD (video on demand) transactions to garner revenue," it said.

Taking cinema to the audience in this way will generate more money and start making up for the DVD business, which is dying worldwide, it added.

The report further said that content will be the king and Bollywood filmmakers will experiment with themes like biopics and reality.

"The change in fortune for Indian cinema has happened due to experimentation with different genres by Indian filmmakers, and this is expected to continue in future," it noted.

The Indian audience has also opened up to new genres and recent success of films like Badlapur, NH 10, Talvar is a proof of the change in taste of moviegoers, the report said.

"In the coming days, we are likely to see more experiments from the filmmakers in terms of depiction of reality, biopics on the lives of famous personalities like M S Dhoni, Saina Nehwal, and Sanjay Dutt," it added.