ShemarooMe takes a cue from Amazon Prime, Disney+Hotstar – to premiere 4 Hindi movies

Under this business model, Shemaroo will market the films to a wider audience base. (Representative image)

ShemarooMe on Wednesday announced that it will premiere four direct to digital movies on its platform starting July 31.

My Client’s Wife will be the first movie to premiere on the OTT (over-the-top) platform. Award winning film Scotland, Sharman Joshi’s drama entertainer The Least of These: The Graham Staines Story and action thriller The Hidden Strike are other movies that will be launched on the platform.

ShemarooMe’s strategy is to acquire small budget Bollywood and regional movies that have an audience but limited avenues to connect with viewers. To ensure that the movies get maximum reach, the OTT player has also inked a strategic partnership with BookMyShow — viewers can book their tickets for these films by logging on to the BookMyShow platform and watch the film on ShemarooMe any number of times over three days from the booking period.

Under this business model, Shemaroo will market the films to a wider audience base. The company said this initiative will assist film producers to unlock newer monetisation opportunities and post the viewing window on ShemarooMe, these films can be offered to satellite, SVoD and other syndication avenues.

“We are absolutely confident that when cinemas are able to reopen safely, the public will once again respond to the unsurpassable big-screen experience, meanwhile our platform will be bridging the gap by entertaining audiences, thereby living by the traits of Shemaroo being the platform for movie lovers at all times,” said Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment.

As cinemas continue to stay locked, producers are increasingly turning to over-the-top (OTT) platforms to screen movies. Amazon Prime Video was the first OTT player to kick off the trend with the acquisition of Gulabo Sitabo that premiered globally on the platform on June 12. Disney+Hotstar has acquired seven Bollywood movies while Netflix is all set to premiere Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl.