For the first time in the history of Indian cinema, a Bollywood movie has been released on Facebook on the same day of its release in theatres.Pushing new boundaries, actor-turned-producer Abhay Deol has made his latest movie One By Two available on Facebook for movie lovers worldwide. The overseas audience can view the film for a price of $4.99 for 48 hours rental.
“This is a paid-for facility wherein consumers can pay and watch the film in foreign countries where the movie isn’t released in theatres. The film can be viewed on the movie’s Facebook page, Viacom18 page, and Abhay Deol’s page,” officials handling the movie said.
To protect the interest of theatre owners in India, Facebook has blocked the IP addresses in India. ``This move is also an innovative part of marketing and distribution strategy of the film,’’officials said.
“I am extremely proud to represent my film and my country in this huge announcement. This is the first digitally-released film on VOD (video on demand), and I would like to thank Facebook and Viacom18 for supporting me and my film,” Mr. Deol said.
“In our quest of bringing differentiated content to consumers through innovative channels, we are delighted to partner Facebook as a platform so that cinema consumers outside India can enjoy their favourite film on their personal device right on the release day. This is also a bold step to counter piracy,” Ajit Andhare, COO, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, said.
Mr. Deol, who has carved a niche for himself as an actor, >recently took on music label company T Series , which was forcing music composers Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy and others to abdicate the copy rights in its favour. Sustained protest by the actor and musicians forced T Series to relinquish the music rights of the movie, and this was for the first time the music of the movie was released without a music label company.
