http://www.itexaminer.com/the-web-becomes-bollywoods-media-partner.aspx
Thursday, 1 January 2009 15:49 UK Bengaluru, India The Web becomes Bollywood's media partner Feature A marriage made in heaven By Harsha Pramod @ Tuesday, December 30, 2008 12:04 PM In India, astrology, Bollywood, and cricket sell. Bollywood has recognized the Web as a key means of promotion. For example, the Aamir Khan movie Ghajini made good use of the Internet in its promotions. In fact, it has utilised the Web more than other traditional media. The movie is a classic example of how a Bollywood movie was promoted through the Internet using blogs, Web portals, and forums. Several Websites including Yahoo and MSN have quoted Aamir Khan's blog to describe the actor's tension before his latest release "Ghajini" terming it as "prenatal depression". Now with Bollywood realizing the potential of the Web, there is a great future ahead for Web portals featuring Bollywood. There are two kinds of websites featuring Bollywood. The verticals are stand alone websites such as www.bollywoodhungama.com and http://www.santabanta.com/, which cover Bollywood exclusively. There are also big companies, which also run portals featuring Bollywood. These are known as horizontal. A typical business model or content is a combination of movies, gossips, special events, interviews, special features, reviews, and wallpapers. To put it briefly, this is a typical content for a Web portal featuring Bollywood. Websites such as yahoo and AOL have separate sections for Bollywood. These generally feature recent releases, box office results, news, interviews, photos, videos and specials. These Websites are up-to-date on information about movies, which are yet to be released and box office performance of movies, such as Ghajini, Rab ne bana di Jodi, Dostana. They also feature interviews with film stars and others behind the screen. Photographs from the latest releases, celebrity photos, events, wallpapers, posters, party photos and production photos are also there on these Websites. For example, Yahoo movies section lists all movies released in 2008 and gives a small description about its story, cast, and reviews. This includes both Hollywood and Bollywood movies. There are other Websites such as www.bollywood.com and www.bollywoodworld.com, which have videos, reviews and news on latest movies and film stars. Rajshri productions' Website www.rajshri.com has films, songs, trailers, reviews, and has a good collection of videos on its site. Verticals have content, which is more in depth. A Web portal, which has 50 or more staff, will typically have various channels and the Bollywood section may have only about two or three people dedicated to it. Where as a Web portal dedicated to Bollywood such as www.santabanta.com may have about 15 to 20 people. More hands ensure better coverage. Typically, content on Bollywood may be self created, with the help of freelance contributors and in house reporters. Content is also generated from agencies, and renowned content providers in this field. Generally, every Bollywood based website has a combination of both. For a Website featuring Bollywood, it is important to have a good rapport with public relations and production houses. Shailesh Kapoor, co-founder and director at Ormax Media said, "There is no dearth of quantity of coverage on Bollywood, though the quality itself is questionable. The basic issue remains credibility. The editorial at most portals may not have expertise in cinema content, and hence, the quality of content is either mediocre, or questionable. Tie-ups exist with big movies. They are of two kinds. One is for content, with sites like MSN India and Indiatimes. Second, if for digital rights, with sites like mauj or hungama, on revenue sharing basis. This is for music and ringtones downloads. There is no structured way these tie-ups work as of now. It is quite ad hoc. The way forward should be in credible content. Sites should be run by content people, rather than by trade journalists or PR managers. Today, all the best editorial people are with film magazines, news channels or newspapers. None of them is willing to commit to Internet, as they think there audience base will be cut. But surely, they can freelance for TV/ print while running a Bollywood channel for a portal. The question is: can portals afford them? This is the key challenge." Partnership Tie ups with a production houses such as Yash Raj could really help a web portal as there will be a good number of releases a year. Generally, production houses would provide content without charging the websites. Websites can have various types of tie ups with production houses. Sometimes, production houses may have exclusive tie ups with Web portals, which may be termed as their Internet media partners. There are however, no fixed formula for partnerships as one of the partners may be charged for the services in some of the partnerships. It could also be a barter kind of system where there is a give and take and both parties benefit from the partnership. The fact is that both partners need each other for their existence. Although the trend to utilise the Web has taken off, it is still in a nascent stage. Hollywood utilises the Web heavily to promote its movies. However, in India Web portals face other concerns while promoting movies through the Web. A broadband connection is important to enjoy a Web portal featuring Bollywood. Information in a typical Web portal may be read by its viewers, though a Bollywood-based Website will be more visual. Without a broadband connection, videos and images may take long time to download. Another important aspect for promoting Bollywood through Web portals is through micro sites. A micro site is a temporarily developed website for a particular movie. For example, AOL has micro Websites for movies in its Web site. Its micro site for the movie Yuvraj at http://www.aol.in/promos/yuvvraaj gives a clear picture of such micro sites. Such sites provide movie stories, trailers, blogs, photos, videos, posters, wallpapers etc. Sometimes such websites also provide an opportunity to chat online with movie stars. Shelf life for such a Website is short and is focused on market. Such a site may experience heavy traffic during pre and post release and then subsides. In Web portals, user consumption is not heavy. Users may visit such sites with the intention of browsing information about a particular actor or a movie, and may leave as soon it is done, without checking out other links. The mobile is another powerful media for promoting Bollywood. Bollywood movies have separate rights for the mobile media, which will be a completely commercial deal. Mobiles usually provide trailers, wallpapers, posters and ringtones of movies. Some also have contests. Just 10 per cent of users downloading ringtones could bring in revenue of 50 to 100 million rupees. This could cover about 10 to 15 per cent of the movie's production cost. The year 2008 was especially good for Bollywood as there was a big market boom. This year saw Bollywood utilising the Web more as movies such as Rock On, with its youthful theme utilised Internet social networking to market the movie. Movies such as Jodhaa Akbar also relied on Internet marketing. Now, most production houses have Web market managers to take care of marketing the movies through the Web.
