In Hollywood, these days, they’re almost the norm. A few days prior to the release of a movie, we often see the release of its app (sometimes multiple ones as we saw with The Dark Knight Rises ), suitable for Android phones or tablets. These interactive apps, packed with information about the movie, lets viewers experience the film on a different plane to watching it unfold on the silver screen. In India, though, there is not much of a movie app culture. Now, for the first time in Malayalam filmdom, actor-producer Prakash Bare comes out with an app for his latest movie Ivan Megharoopan . The app was released at a function in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
Ivan Megharoopan , directed by P. Balachandran, is inspired by the life of Malayalam poet P. Kunhiraman Nair. It stars Prakash Bare in the lead, as a bard who is in love with nature and women. Padmapriya, Swetha Menon, Remya Nambhessan, and Anu Mol, play some of his lady loves. The ‘Ivan Megharoopan’ app, an interactive app available for free download on Google Play, has tit-bits about the making of the film, its cast and crew, the synopsis, and so on, and even helps you pinpoint the nearest theatres where the film, which is being released this Friday (July 27), is being screened and the show times too.
“India is one of fastest developing markets for smart phones; in fact, we have more smart phones than we have computers! So the trend for apps is picking up,” says Bare, an IT entrepreneur-turned-actor who holds a postgraduate degree in microelectronics from IIT, Kanpur. “At a later stage the ‘Ivan Megharoopan’ app will also allow users to book tickets through the mobile phone and also rate the film and the performances,” adds Bare.
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The app was developed by Jadoo Tech Solutions, a firm specialising in gaming and entertainment applications that developed the popular anti-piracy software Agent Jadoo.