Original Tamil Film DVDs at Rs.49/-
The other day I was in Landmark (Nungambakkam High Road Branch) and saw the largest collection of Original Tamil DVDs and VCDs from Moserbaer and other manufacturers. It was several hundreds of movies spanning last several decades of Tamil movie including those released in last few years. Before this the largest such collection of original Tamil movies I have seen only in Singapore Serangoon Road (where VCDs are priced at SGD 10 and DVDs at SGD 20). In Landmark that day for instance I bought காக்க காக்க DVD at Rs.49 and வீரா, குரு சிஷ்யன் DVD combo at Rs.65.
After several decades, Tamil Film Producers & copyright owners seems to have come to their senses. Instead of fighting piracy they seem to have realized making their recent and old assets widely available as Discs in affordable rates will bring a new revenue stream for them. Just like T-Series in early 80’s brought out affordable Cassettes and pioneered in India the original music market, Moser Baer seems to have now done the trick for VCDs and DVDs by bringing out original discs at Rs.39 and Rs.49/-
வீரா, குரு சிஷ்யன் at Rs.65
காக்க காக்க at Rs.49
What also galls me is the strategy of foreign studios (Universal, Warner to name a few). An average movie in America is priced between $10-$20 and in India it is typically Rs 499-Rs 699.
However to tackle the China market, they released a few years ago almost 200-300 blockbusters at $1 !
Just shows how we are always treated differently
Kiran
I am not sure of the concerts and original recordings of MoserBaer, I haven’t tried them. But Tamil Movies I bought seems to be good, definitely better than pirated stuffs.
I wish we can get in HD quality, but in Tamilnadu getting Legal Tamil Movies itself is a big achievement, so I don’t mind any sub-optimal quality. Only when the market is made known to producers we can demand for better quality. I frankly think in India people who are willing to pay premium for quality is less that it will not justify a market, anything beyond Rs.50 per DVD will push people back to Piracy – b’cos it is so easy to piracy and there is a ready market.
I tend to agree with Janakiram. I picked up some recordings of carnatic concerts and the quality was worse than TV quality
Also while no one noticed, they introduced at Rs 28 (VCD) and Rs 34 (DVD) and now they have jacked up the rates
But a very innovative forward integration model
Well, I am not impressed by the audio and video quality of Moser Baer. I wouldn’t mind shelling out more bucks for getting better experience out of the DVDs.
I shared my experience at http://www.janakiramm.net/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=99017408-674b-4dc0-a541-9b4f0fc1c609.