Innovations are an eclectic mix of a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea. One such recent innovation is being introduced by an entertainment industry start-up, FilMe, which enables filmmakers to take their content to the audience. It is a completely new set of rights for filmmakers to monetise and it doesn’t overlap with prevailing distribution rights like digital, satellite, AVOD, SVOD or TVOD rights. FilMe has acquired rights of three recently released films viz. Angrezi Medium, Love Aaj Kal, and Bala, among others.
FilMe, which comes in the form of a business card-sized form factor is an innovative film distribution platform. It delivers content directly on mobile phones. FilMe is an Australia-born global company with a patented technology to deliver content on mobile phones using a physical card through a QR code. To deliver content in offline mode, films are embedded on a microchip on the FilMe card and can be viewed on a mobile phone. FilMe is also building an online offering mode, which will be rolled out at a later stage.
To consume content on FilMe, one does not need Internet, any app download or any subscription. Using this technology, three films will initially be made available to consumers for as little as Rs. 49 only. The initial rollout of its offline offering will include recently released films like Angrezi Medium, Love Aaj Kal, Bala, Stree, Made In China and Social Media Murder Society. FilMe will rollout its operations in the market at the end of the present lockdown.
Talking about the innovation and his new platform, Dr. Abhishek Shukla, founder of FilMe, says, “We have developed this technology, keeping the end consumer in mind. There is no learning curve and is immediately ready to use. It’s for consumers who would prefer personal entertainment without the burden of paying for multiple subscriptions of various OTT platforms. Our target is to bridge the gap of present reach and affordability without affecting any platform’s present operations in any way. The offline mode can actually be called as ‘DVD for smart phones’ as it is a physical form of distribution of films. For the producers and studios, we are confident of delivering additional revenues for their content.”
FilMe plans to have a pan-India distribution set-up to sell the FilMe retail cards and they will be available at mobile retail stores, electronic superstores like Reliance Digital, cafes, stationery stores, booths at shopping centers, train and metro stations and departmental stores.