(31 January 2007 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Moser Baer Ltd is expanding its home video business. The company plans to come out with Malayalam films in the VCD and DVD formats.

The entry into this market will be with Tiger which has Suresh Gopi, Murali and Gopika as star cast. This will be released in both VCD and DVD formats.

"We plan to launch 100 other titles from our library of over 600 Malayalam titles, both from catalogue as new films. This is the first time that a launch of such an unprecedented scale of titles will take place in Kerala. While all the titles will be introduced in VCD format, 12 key titles are planned to be introduced in DVD format also," the company said in a statement.

Moser Baer has already lined up 26 distributors in Kerala and stocks shall be available immediately in around 5,000 outlets which will be scaled up in future. "We will be advertising the concept of low cost, original VCDs and DVDs in local TV channels and press starting from 1 February," the company said.

On 10 January, Moser Baer launched over 101 Tamil titles in Tamil Nadu. The company releases video content on DVD and Video CD formats using its proprietary and patented technology which it claims "enhances quality" and significantly reduces cost.

Moser Baer is in final negotiations to acquire copyrights/exclusive license of more than 7000 titles in all major Indian languages. "This initiative in Kerala is poised to bring a paradigm change in the home video market. We believe this will lead to much higher consumption of content on home video, and encourage people to build libraries and eschew piracy. We have planned distribution to reach virtually every town where there is a movie loving family. Our rich library, world-class packaging and production, and unbeatable value propositions for customers will surely propel Moser Baer and this new venture into the top end of the market in a very short time," said Moser Baer executive director Ratul Puri.

The new initiative will release titles in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi languages. "With 18 CFAs, 400 distributors and a dedicated sales force, this division will also set up owned and branded outlets at about 300 locations in addition to its alliances with large format stores. One such branded outlet was already inaugurated and isfunctioning at Pondicherry," the company said.