Moser Baer Crashes Hindi Movie DVD Prices Below $1 in India

I recently brought a new Sony DVD player and while I was out shopping for some Hindi movie DVD’s and VCD’s in Delhi, I was surprised how much prices had dropped (crashed!) in the last few months. Moser Baer DVD’s are costing Rs. 34 and VCD’s for Rs. 28, even less than a dollar!

My neighbourhood movie rental store charges Rs 100 per DVD rental per day, and charges Rs 50 per VCD rental per day. A movie ticket in a good multiplex costs about Rs 125 per person. Online movie rentals cost you in between, with some more flexibility of delivery and longer duration of use. Why rent a DVD or waste money in a movie theatre, when you can buy a cheap DVD and watch your favorite movie as many times as you like for Rs 34 only. Compare these cheap prices with a regular VCD costing Rs 160-200 and a regular DVD costing about Rs 300-400. [1 Dollar = Rs 40-41]

Of course the number of film titles is very limited, with several old movie titles and some less recent popular movies. But it has started a price war in the DVD / VCD industry with other companies like T-Series, Ultra etc. lowering their prices too to survive the competition. This has led to an increase in the variety of cheap movie titles available in the market.

This also challenges the large pirated movies market which had developed in response to expensive DVD prices beyond the reach of the common man, allowing people to buy illegally copied cheap DVD and VCD’s. Another popular trend was DivX videos incorporating several films on one disc. Now the falling prices will make piracy difficult.

Moreover, since there is such a low difference in prices between a VCD and DVD for the same movie title, why would you buy a set of 3 VCD’s, when you can get a better quality single DVD for a little more. Of course there are no movie extras like deleted scenes, behind the scene events, movie development progress etc.

I visited the Moser Baer Online Home Video Store, where you can buy cheap DVD’s online. They are currently offering free shipping for all orders of more than 20 units (VCDs & DVDs) till 30th September 2007 (or pay a delivery charge of Rs.50 per order). The deal also offers a free VCD/DVD pouch with every purchase of 20 items!

I checked back and found that this Moser Baer initiative was announced in December last year as per a Economic Times news report and has now brought cheap DVD’d within the buying power of every Indian.

“Moser Baer has developed new technology to bring the price down for the Digital Video Discs (DVDs) and Video Compact Disks. “We have filed for more than 30 technology patents to develop these new discs, and they use a new compound and proprietary technology to copy the content on the disk at the manufacturing stage. This has helped us bring down the cost, substantially,” said, Ratul Puri, Executive Director of Moser Baer. Moser Baer is going to buy home video and DVD/VCD rights and distribute them across retail stores in the country. The company has started an entertainment division to sell and distribute these movies across the country.”

And who is the winner? the movie buff. It is time to start building your own personal home video library.