I have to confess to a sneaking admiration of Bollywood movies. Growing up in the Pacific, the cinema in those days was a couple of Hindi trailers, a B Film, (an Australian short) and then the latest feature, an American movie. Where else could you get three continents of artistic creativity all in one movie house? Alas these days are gone, but those melodramatic and colourful dance musicals, with beautiful lip-syncing stars, made a lasting impression on me.
When I came across an article about the creation of a Bollywood version of YouTube – www.rajshri.com, I was somewhat surprised that this had not been done sooner. As the world’s most prolific movie industry, Bollywood produces approximately 1,000 films each year which are watched in over 100 countries by 25 million Indians working abroad. As it still takes weeks for newly released Bollywood movies to reach all their foreign markets, piracy continues to fill the demand/supply gap costing the industry 33% of its revenues. While there are a handful of third-party sites offering digital downloads, the Rajshri Group and Eros Entertainment have taken things a step further by releasing new Bollywood movies simultaneously online allowing fans to watch thousands of movies, videos and TV shows for free. It is perhaps little wonder that 90% of Rajshri’s viewers are overseas customers.
This also opens up new opportunities for independent Indian movie makers who can release their films into the market via Rajshri without all those distribution costs. While this model is the future for Bollywood – and what a future it is – we may yet have a long wait for Hollywood to do likewise!
The Wolfman turned out to be everything I’d hoped for. Making a horror movie with a classic feel to it is like threading a needle – there are so many ways to screw it up. But the folks who made this movie pulled it off. The movie looks great. The cast is fantastic. Rick Baker’s make-up was awesome. And the CGI transformation scenes (that I was concerned about)are FANTASTIC! I really don’t think Rick Baker could have improved on them. This movie is a great valentine to lovers of the Universal classics. Fun!