Mobile Bollywood initiative unveiled

News

Stuart O'Brien Jan 15 2007, 2:45pm

Roamware and Hungama Mobile have teamed with the GSM Association to launch the ‘Mobile Bollywood Film Initiative’.

The three partners have joined with filmmaker Sanjay Gupta to premiere three Bollywood short 'mobile' movies at the GSMA’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next month.

The Mobile Bollywood Film Initiative builds on the announcement earlier this month of the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, a joint initiative of the GSMA and the Sundance Institute.

Sanjay Gupta's initial three films will be joined by seven more from other directors in the coming months as part of a series on ten films known collectively as Dus Kahaniyah. As with the Sundance Short Film Project, operator distribution for the films will be announced in the coming weeks.

Craig Ehrlich, chairman of the GSMA, said: “The Sundance and Bollywood communities represent some of the most creative, vibrant and diverse talent in the movie world. We hope to catalyse a truly compelling mobile entertainment experience for mobile users globally.”

Bollywood is one of the fastest growing entertainment industry segments and has an appeal not only for the 140 million mobile phone users in India but for markets across all continents. Indian cinema is now dubbed in over 35 languages and accounts for as much as 18 per cent of theatrical business in markets such as UK.