Karnataka - Bangalore

The magic of the movies

Akshay Rajmohan and Debayan Deb

There are those who like to watch them at home and those who like to go out

STICKING TO THE ORIGINAL: Despite thriving piracy, many people prefer buying original DVDs for better sound quality and picture. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Akshay Rajmohan

and Debayan Deb

Bangalore: There is nothing better than sitting down in your living room after a hard day's work and unwinding to classic celluloid in all its glory.

Thanks to advancements in home entertainment technology and the release of movies subsequently on VCDs and DVDs, more and more people prefer a quite evening at home with the movies than a noisy, frequently disturbed evening at the multiplex.

Bangalore's growing IT-oriented population, who live fast-paced lives, travelling back and forth from work and home, find little time to go to the movies anymore, even with multiplexes such as PVR and INOX located in key parts of the city. Some prefer the comfort of their homes and the company of watching movies with their friends and family. Exclusive DVD rental outlets such as Cinema Paradiso, Channel Nine and Planet V are havens for seekers of crystal clear sound and picture quality.

Lawrence Bridges, system in-charge at Cinema Paradiso, says his outlet deals with original merchandise. "We have perhaps the largest collection of original DVDs in Bangalore," he says. With lifetime membership as low as Rs. 3,000 and rental for movies, anything between Rs. 75 to Rs. 100, movies by acclaimed directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and such stalwarts are in high demand in such places.

Apart from renting these movies, some prefer to buy them from outlets such as Musicworld, Landmark and Crosswords, with Landmark boasting the largest collection.

With original DVDs costing about Rs. 900 and VCDs at anything between Rs. 50 to Rs. 300, most consumers buy these titles to add to their collection or to enjoy good, legal, home entertainment.

But not everyone sees exclusive DVD rental and retail outlets as an alternative to movie going. Street vendors play "pirate" as they peddle DVDs at lower rates. At prices as low as Rs. 40 for a DVD, some with three or four movies together, people do not mind picking a DVD from these stalls now and thenPratap Singh, a vendor located around Koramangala, earns his livelihood this way.

"I buy pirated DVDs from sources like National Market and make a profit of Rs. 15 to Rs. 20," he says. Most of this pirated merchandise comes in from Chennai and is later duplicated on a larger scale on the outskirts of the city.

The eternal battle between legal and illegal will wage on, with companies such as Sony launching the BluRay series, which are being marketed as "un-piratable," and hackers and crackers finding new ways of pirating them.

Movie-goers will be divided into the two camps. One that will always prefer watching movies the legal way and others who would mind getting their hands a little dirty to tune in, turn on and chill out.

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