Exclusive | Indian movies - anytime, anywhere on Spuul: Prakash Ramchandani

The demand for popular Indian content amongst the Indian Diaspora and the global audience as well is growing at a tremendous pace. More specifically, with India’s appeal going global, nations across the world are being mesmerized by the incredible synchronized mass dancing, lively music and the – somewhat – exaggerated overacting of the film genre known as the Bollywood movie.

 

However it is often difficult for people living abroad to find the latest Bollywood films playing at their local movie theatre. For such huge fans and Bollywood buffs, Spuul.com brings the latest blockbusters in the comfort of their homes whenever consumers want them, in 11 different formats. So Bollywood lovers can instantly watch Bollywood blockbusters wherever they are, whenever they want.

 

Speaking to Adgully, Prakash Ramchandani, Head, South Asia and India, Spuul.com said, “with content consumption getting fragmented, people have options and are looking at watching content on the go or in the comfort of their homes. The availability of cheap broadband and smart phones has added to the convenience of watching content. Spuul.com comes into play here as a premium legal video streaming site that will provide consumers with good Indian content globally.”

 

Spuul.com was set-up in 2010; the site was launched in April 2012 by seasoned entrepreneurs including Sudesh Iyer, founder of Sony Entertainment TV in India, and S. Mohan, founder of Palo Alto-based Accellion. The online entertainment service is focused on streaming Indian movies and TV shows. In addition to a large selection of free movies, Spuul offers Specials that are pay-per-view movies and a Premium monthly subscription option.

 

Says Ramchandani, “from the latest blockbusters to evergreen classics, we have the best collection of Bollywood movies online. New titles are added weekly. Spuul.com is an ad-supported subscription-based online video streaming service that provides legal Indian content in a freemium model, answering the oldest critical question; how to give mass international online distribution to a Bollywood film while keeping its DRM component secure and not permitting online piracy of the product.”

 

Spuul is also available as an app for iOS devices that streams Bollywood movies and TV shows on-the-go. The Spuul App features some unique functionality, including the ability to save and recall users’ playback position between different devices. an easy-to-use search function that simplifies the discovery of content (critical considering the massive amount of content as Bollywood is one of the biggest film production centers of the world) and helps deliver a premium entertainment experience for movie watchers. The App supports any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch device running iOS version 4.3 or later.

 

Says Ramchandani, “the industry has limitless potential given the variety of content from popular movies to yesteryear popular TV shows to music etc. The growth of smart phones and broadband mobile penetration in addition to the computer penetration has been very significant in recent times. India already has 50 million Facebook users. So the online consumer space is expanding fast and the market space is huge.”

 

On competition has adds, “there will be multiple players as a lot more will enter this segment in coming years because of the value proposition. But consolidation will happen eventually. We welcome competition and are ready to face it as we see ourselves uniquely focused only on the Indian content. We have the understanding and the background to handle competition.”On the pricing front, Spuul has kept the subscription rates very competitive and in line with the DTH rates in overseas markets at $ 4.99 per month.

 

The company is looking at various promotional options to build reputation. “For overseas promotion we are focusing on online media while for India it is a mix of traditional and new media because the domestic consumers needs to be educated in this new medium pf movie streaming,” says Ramchandani.

 

As for the challenges in this business, Ramchandani says, “the biggest challenge is piracy which eats up about 20 per cent of revenues of a movie. It is a problem that every one of us has to fight.” Spuul has a secure technology platform that does not allow for piracy.