Mobile-entertainment company Hungama Mobile has partnered with Actimagine to make Bollywood films available to mobile-phone users. Hungama selected Actimagine’s Mobiclip compression codec to display films at what it described as DVD quality, at 24 frames per second and full screen, without reducing battery life.
The partnership will make Bollywood films available worldwide on memory cards for the first time, distributed through handset manufacturers and retailers. Films will also be downloadable through Hungama’s Bollywood portal, indiafm.com, which the company said reached 11 million users per month.
The companies described Bollywood as the world’s largest film industry, producing more than 1,000 films annually and reaching over two billion viewers in 127 countries. Indian films were dubbed into more than 35 languages and appeared in film-chart top tens in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Singapore and South Africa.
Hungama Mobile distributes, produces and publishes Indian entertainment and Bollywood films on digital and mobile platforms. The company said it controlled more than 70 percent of exclusive Bollywood-content rights worldwide.
“Hungama Mobile has paved the way for distributing Bollywood content in the digital world,” said managing director and chief executive Neeraj Roy. He said the company was moving from music, images, video and games to complete films for phones, with the prospect of supplying content in more than 125 countries.
Actimagine chief executive André Pagnac described Bollywood as one of entertainment’s fastest-growing segments. He said Mobiclip’s focus on mobile platforms made it suitable for Hungama Mobile’s international expansion.
