3GSM: Bollywood Goes Mobile

Sharon Khare • February 14, 2007, 12:14:53 IST

The world’s largest film industry, Bollywood, has joined forces with the global mobile communications world premiering its first films for mobile viewers.

The world’s largest film industry, Bollywood, has joined forces with the global mobile communications world as it premiered its first feature films for mobile viewers at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The Bollywood Mobile Initiative is driven by Roamware, provider of roaming and mobile connectivity solutions; Hungama Mobile, aggregator, developer and publisher of Indian entertainment and Bollywood content; Sanjay Gupta, Bollywood director; and the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association for mobile operators. Roamware’s Media Call technology is providing the capability to integrate the cinematic content into the everyday mobile experience for film fans.

“Media Call redefines mobile communications from voice to visual media, enabling the sharing and promotion of film clips to accelerate the growth of the mobile movie market,” said Bobby Srinivasan, CEO of Roamware.

Two Bollywood short films “Zahir” and “Matrimony” were premiered in Barcelona today. These films are a part of the feature film ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ (10 Stories) produced by Sanjay Gupta of White Feather Films, starring Dia Mirza, Suneil Shetty, Sanjay Dutt, Neha, Mandira Bedi, Aftab Shivdasani and many others.

“Bollywood today is the world’s largest movie industry, producing more than a thousand movies a year with an audience of more than two billion viewers across 127 countries. Formatting that content for the mobile audience and ensuring simplicity of delivery and accessibility provides staggering reach and revenue possibilities,” said Srinivasan.

“The GSMA is delighted to welcome the stars and directors from the Bollywood world to the world’s largest mobile event,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Marketing Officer of the GSMA. “We are excited by the tremendous potential for Bollywood entertainment on mobile phones, and delighted to support the efforts of Roamware and Hungama Mobile in their commitment to bringing a rich array of Indian film entertainment to the fourth screen for a global audience of millions.”

Bollywood is one of the fastest growing entertainment industry segments and has an appeal not only for the 150 million mobile phone users in India but for markets across all continents. Indian cinema is now dubbed in over 35 languages and accounts for as much as 16.5% of theatrical business inmarkets such as the UK. Indian films have made it into the top 10 charts in markets such as USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore and South Africa.

More than 3.6 billion admission tickets are sold each year, and now will be on some 2.5 billion mobile screens.

Written by Sharon Khare

Born with the sole aim of correcting people, Sharon took to copy-editing at an early age. In the olden days her methods of correction were rather unorthodox. Don't believe us? Ask the intern who lost two of his er.... Oh ok, I guess we don't talk about that. Now after she got a kid, things have relatively mellowed down. Besides handling the plethora of content that comes out of Tech2, Sharon also handles our sister site, CompareIndia where you can well compare prices of pretty much every electronic item under the sun and CHIP magazine as well, if things weren't heavy enough. She handles a team, all of who seem real happy as long as they're not chained to their desks. see more