India Filmmakers, KaZaA In Download Deal

In a deal that's believed to have the potential to cut costs and pump up revenues in Bollywood, filmmakers here and the parent company of KaZaA have a deal to offer Internet movie downloads, the company announced December 22.

"In a distribution deal struck between Sharman's partner Altnet, Inc... and IndiaFM.com, one of the most popular Bollywood entertainment sites, KaZaA's estimated 60 million global users will gain access to previously unavailable content," said a statement from Sharman Networks, the Australian parent of KaZaA.

The deal is said to involve about 35 producers and began when Suprari, a thriller, was offered to KaZaA users for $2.99, according to Reuters. The kicker: The file of the film was intended for one-time viewing and, in something straight out of Mission: Impossible, was programmed to self-destruct after viewing and thus unable to be copied.

"It was a thrill for me to become the first to do it, in an industry which had ignored the Internet, or did not pay enough attention," Suprari executive producer Meenu Kumar said to Reuters.

IndiaFM said in a statement that the KaZaA deal means Bollywood producers "can now distribute movies, music, and other large, rich media files online that would be too large and expensive to host on a traditional Website." Co-founder Saleem Mobhani told Reuters they're beginning with promotional content, mostly, but are working on allowing movies and songs on pay-per-view mode in 2004.

And the audience possibilities are thought to be vast enough, Reuters said, because although only 10 million of India's billion people are Netizens, another 20 million Indians live overseas.

Kumar praised the KaZaA deal as a way to curb online piracy, perhaps the major reason why Hollywood remains slow to accept online downloading.