Bollywood Movies Go Mobile With GSM Association, Roamware & Hungama

It's official - Bollywood is going mobile in a big way. Roamware and Hungama Mobile have joined forces with the GSM Association (GSMA) to announce the launch of a 'Mobile Bollywood Initiative' to create short movies tailored for mobile devices, taking the world's largest film industry onto mobile devices all over the globe.

In conjunction with the GSMA, Hungama Mobile and Roamware have teamed up with leading Bollywood filmmaker, Sanjay Gupta, to premiere three Bollywood short movies for the mobile medium. These films will be premiered at the GSMA's 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, which runs from the 12th to 15th of February 2007. The Congress, the largest annual mobile event, is expected to attract over 60,000 attendees from across the global mobile value chain. Bollywood today is the world's largest movie industry, producing more than 1,000 movies a year with an audience of more than 2 billion viewers across 127 countries.

The Mobile Bollywood Initiative builds on the announcement earlier this month that Roamware has become an exclusive sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, a joint initiative of the GSM Association and the Sundance Institute.

"We are very excited by Roamware and Hungama Mobiles' commitment to bring the spectacle of Bollywood to mobile phones - the fourth screen - at the world's most important mobile industry gathering," said Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSM Association. "The Sundance and Bollywood communities represent some of the most creative, vibrant and diverse talent in the movie world, and we are delighted to be able to showcase these extraordinary films in Barcelona. In doing so, we hope to catalyse a truly compelling mobile entertainment experience for mobile users globally."

"Hungama Mobile has pioneered the delivery of Bollywood entertainment content to the world and has been instrumental in promoting Bollywood in the wireless world. From providing music, imagery, video and games we are now preparing to introduce full features and this project with Sanjay Gupta is a step in the same direction. Hungama Mobile has worldwide exclusive rights to over 70% of Bollywood content on the mobile and digital platforms and this content comes from the world's fastest growing mobile market - India and the most vibrant film industry. We believe it offers tremendous promise as a content category for carriers in over 125 countries." said Neeraj Roy, Managing Director & CEO of Hungama Mobile.

"We are honoured to be part of the Sundance Institute and the GSMA's pioneering vision of the distribution of movies via the mobile phone. Bollywood is a huge force in the global film market, and we look forward to helping the mobile industry realise the potential of this partnership," said Bobby Srinivasan, CEO of Roamware.

"Bollywood is a massive presence in the world movie industry, and South Asia represents the fastest growing mobile market in the world. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be involved in a project that has a promise and the potential to create a whole new distribution model for Bollywood cinematic entertainment," said Sanjay Gupta, who is well known for directing several super-hit movies including Kaante and Musafir. "Our project 'Dus Kahaniyah' has been made keeping the mobile and digital medium in mind and the fact that today the market for short films has been given a huge impetus as the quality of video experience on mobile has improved significantly."

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% of theatrical business in markets such as UK. Indian films have made it into the top 10 charts in markets such as USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore and South Africa.