Tag Archives: OTT

‘Halal Love Story’

Films like ‘Stranger than fiction’, ‘Bowfinger’, ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’, ‘Get Shorty’ etc explored either the personalities involved in film-making or the process of it.  And films like ‘Abhimaan’, ‘Sur’, ‘Swathi Kiranam’, ‘Rangeela’ ‘Janam’ etc threw light on the relationships of the protagonists and how they change for better or worse during the course of their artistic careers or specifically during a project..

‘Halal Love Story’ does a combination of both. It’s about a bunch of likeminded people who know exactly what their film should be, yet absolutely ignorant of the whole process. Interestingly they get the first step right—The producers. These are like the Chili Palmer(Get Shorty) kind in ‘who believe they don’t have to know much about producing’, yet smart enough to make the key decisions about how their film would eventually turn out as per their inspiration, which in this case is the Iranian classic ‘Children of Heaven’.

‘Halal Love Story’ is an endearing tale of emotions and how the simple things become complicated in life and then simple again. It’s a must watch for any person who is interested in movie-making and management. What in management? One can still stick to his principles and get a project done and that accommodating the emotions of the team always helps in a better output.

Tailpiece 1: ‘Bowfinger’

Q:Why don’t you wait till you get a star who wants to be in it?
Mr.Bowfinger: I’m 49 years old. Admittedly, I could get away with 44, 41, maybe 38. But when you hit 50, they don’t hire you anymore. It’s like they can smell 50.

Tailpiece 2: ‘Get Shorty’

Q: What the f do you know about producing?
Chili Palmer: I don’t think the producer has to do much, outside of maybe knowing a writer.

Tailpiece 3:

When my father made a film for TV, he called it TV Cinema 🙂 That’s the same term producers use in ‘Halal Love Story’ 🙂

Tailpiece 4

Sync sound used to be a very expensive affair. Not sure how it was even considered at that time. But the cameo of Soubin Shahir is very funny.

Entertainment battle moves to the web

The explosion in online video consumption is pushing TV and film companies to fine-tune their internet strategies

Ditto TV offers 60 Indian TV channels such as Colors, Sony and Zee TV online – on the mobile, tablet or laptop. If you are a Vodafone, Airtel or BSNL subscriber, you could pick and choose what you want and get billed by the mobile operator. After a year of its launch, Ditto TV has 292,000 active users paying anything from Rs 10 to Rs 100, depending on what they buy. And here is the surprising bit: Ditto TV is the OTT, or over-the-top, arm of the Rs 6,350-crore Zee Group, one of India’s largest media houses.

T-Series, India’s largest music company, got more than 90 per cent of its March 2013 revenue of Rs 450 crore from “non-physical” formats. Some of that is the fees from restaurants for playing its music, while the bulk comes from scores of streaming and download services such as Saavn and Gaana.com or from YouTube. T-Series has remained the most viewed channel on YouTube for over three years now.

The others among the top ten on YouTube include the Rs 1,074-crore Eros International, India’s largest film studio, the Rs 6,100-crore Star India, Shemaroo Entertainment, an erstwhile video company which is now a digital content firm, and Rajshri, the digital arm of one of India’s oldest production houses.

The who’s who of the Rs 83,000-crore Indian media and entertainment industry is back online, and with gusto. The growth in mobile devices coupled with an improving bandwidth has liberated millions of Indians. This in turn has led to an explosion in online video consumption in one of the world’s largest internet markets. From liftmen and security guards to college students – more than 227 million Indians are online. They could be watching films, cricket matches, TV shows, yoga and cookery lessons, among other things, on their mobiles, laptops, tablets, phablets et cetera. According to comScore, a digital anyalytics company, more than 59 million people went to one video site or the other in November 2013. The actual figure is larger as the comScore sample doesn’t yet include mobile devices.

Click here for complete article at Business Standard.com