Aamir Khan, marketing genius is at work again, one can expect the craziest ways of promoting a film. This time the producers of 3 Idiots have struck a deal with online video sharing and broadcasting portal YouTube for an undisclosed sum.
This legal downloading of films is aimed at people who are unable to go to the cinema. Known that this is the first time an entire movie can be legally downloaded from YouTube, of course it was already possible to download camera prints of the movie as a workaround, this is the first time a HQ DVD was available for download.
Bollywood producer Vinod Chopra has announced:
“The movie will be released on YouTube after eight to ten weeks,” The deal with YouTube will allow viewers to download the entire movie from the Web at a fixed price. “We haven’t decided on the pricing points yet, but we hope this will stop illegal download and video sharing,”
According to a recent report released by Motion Picture Association of America, India ranks eight among countries with the highest incidence of online piracy. I’m sure the only way to maximize revenues is to have multiple launch platform and youtube (the worlds largest and popular video service) is one of them.. :) .
The film download is not free, there is a certain amount paid before the movie can be downloaded (pay-per-download). How much should be paid is not known yet. It is also not known how big the download will be and whether there are other restrictions. Stay tuned :).
