How much of the home video market have you captured?
We have captured about 50 per cent of the official market, which is a small market when you look at the piracy market. Recently we launched a Hindi title called Jab We Met at Rs 49. Till then new Hindi DVDs were selling at Rs 399. So, we sold close to 2 million copies of Jab We Met.
But by my calculation, the same film might have actually sold 10 million copies. So, where have the 8 million copies gone? They are all pirated. The question is, will we be able to capture that market?
Will you be able to?
Very tough. It all depends on the window period, that is, after how many months of release, should we come out with the video? The ideal time is one week. If the consumer is aware that one week after the release, the video will be out, he will not buy a pirated CD. We released the video of Jab we met in 6 weeks’ time but the film is still running in the theatres.
Let us do some arithmetic. This film collected Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million). The average ticket value in India is Rs 40. So, how many people would have watched it in theatres? Just 1.5 crore (Rs 15 million) people.
The real success of this company will be when we can conquer at least 10% of the market.
Image: An East Timorese boy shows a video compact disk of an Indian film industry Bollywood movie at his stall in Dili. Indian movies are getting more and more popular in many countries across the world as well as in East Timor. | Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
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