Reliance is taking entertainment very seriously, it seems.
First, they launched the gaming portal zapak.com and now, the Reliance ADA Group has launched bigflicks.com, which is being advertised as a Web site where you can download movies for a fee, ranging from $2 to $15.
Present at the launch of the site was Ramesh Sippy, who said bigflicks.com will start new opportunities and revenues for producers.
Vikram Bhatt's Fear, which has not had a theatrical release yet, will be one of the movies available for download.
The Web site has about 1,000 movies in their library and is in talks with production houses for more. It plans to open libraries in Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Pune.
"Reliance ADA has been a successful venture through their multiplexes," said Manmohan Shetty of Adlabas multiplexes. "Now, the producers will earn more revenue through this venture and small budget movies will be available at your doorsteps. Good movies, which flop at the box office because they have small audience, will be directly made available to download."
Other film personalities present included Jimmy Shergill, Poonam Dhillon, Reema Lagoo, Ishita, Milind Soman, Sudhir Mishra, Nandana Sen, Kiran Shantaram, Vijay Patkar, Rahul Dev and Rituparno Sengupta.
Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar