An indian-born Us based mechanical engineer is about to change the way you will watch cinema. this May, his website Dingora will stream Bollywood films on the same day they release, right across to your PC. it's high definition, and all legal
An indian-born Us based mechanical engineer is about to change the way you will watch cinema. this May, his website Dingora will stream Bollywood films on the same day they release, right across to your PC. it's high definition, and all legalu00a0u00a0
It's the stuff dreams are made of. At least, if you are a movie buff. It's sin in film fanatic circles to miss out on great cinema. But what when you get caught up with work on the Friday a film releases, or if life takes a cruel turn and robs you of a chance to drop by at a theatre on the weekend? Now, imagine a world where you will have movies streamed onto your computer on the very Friday they release. And it's so cheap, you can catch it a few times over the weekend.
This isn't a new scam by the piracy industry. It's a cracker ofu00a0 an initiative by Pankaj Sikka, mechanical engineer and founder-president of website Dingora. Describing Dingora, Pankaj says, "It's your multiplex, online." 
When the website goes live in May 2010, it will be a simple three-step process to catch your favourite flick online. Register on dingora.com, go to the new movies panel and click on 'now showing'. Select your film and pay for the ticket. Bring out the popcorn and enjoy a great Bollywood film just like you would in a multiplex. Except, unlike at a multiplex, here you get to pause, rewind and fast-forward.
The idea for Dingora came to Pankaj, a resident of the US, when he drove for eight hours to catch Ram Gopal Varma's Company, because no theatre close to him was showing it. This made him realise that only certain pockets of the NRI market were privileged to catch their favourite desi actor in all his glory.
For all the hue and cry that is made about the power of the NRI market on a film's box office opening, a surprisingly large number of non resident Indian Hindi film fans, have no access to Bollywood. "Dingora is a combination of various technologies. Google helped us in mapping.
We have tied up with Microsoft, and there is no chance of the film being stolen while being streamed. Dingora mainly focusses on reaching 30 million NRIs. Big releases reach where the concentration of Indians is largeu00a0-- New York, Chicago. It's not justifiable to send a reel to every town. They miss a large chunk of the 45 other states," Pankaj explains.
Producer has control
Pankaj is also the founder of film website, Passion for Cinema. Filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap and Nishikant Kamat (Dombivali Fast, Mumbai Meri Jaan) were with him on the project since it's inception. Convincing them and other filmmakers was an easy task. Next on the agenda are meetings with producers and distributors u00e2u0080u0094 the rights holders of the film. That might not be tough either, when you have a product like Dingora. Pankaj lists the benefits: "Releasing a movie on Dingora has zero cost.
They won't be paying theatre rental charges. I can't reveal any figures but we are also offering them a high percentage of ticket sales. The producer can decide which country, even which state he wants to release the film in. They also get to choose for how long they want to make the film available, and at what ticket prices."u00a0
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Kicks piracy in the teeth
An initiative like Dingora helps reduce piracy since it makes films available on the day of their release, at reasonable prices. "There is a huge Indian population in Africa, and they don't often get to see Bollywood films. They have to watch films on pirated DVDs.
A large number of non-Indians too are curious about Indian cinema, and crave better access," says Pankaj, from experience. His American wife and COO of Dingora, Trasie, who apart from being an executive film producer for independent films, is also a huge Shah Rukh Khan fan.u00a0
Smaller budget, independent and documentary filmmakers would consider using the website to reach out to a wider audience. Pankaj says the revenue for these filmmakers is small and most of their budgets are devoted to marketing. This leaves little for distribution.
In an arena like Dingora, they are allowed to release their films and keep them running for any desired duration, unlike a multiplex where the film is pulled out in a week if it does bad business. But Pankaj insists he has no intention of stepping into someone else's territory. With the power of the Internet, the experience of watching a film will transform into a more personal one. From this May, your favourite film will be playing on a computer near you.
Day: Friday
Time: 4.30 pm
Location: work station in office you think he is: wrapping up next day's power point presentation
he is, actually: in the middle of a 4.5 minute long sex scene from Love Sex aur Dhokha
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