Watch Kannada movies online in a legal way and sin-free!

     Film-makers fear the internet, where fans films upload new films, depriving them of what they feel is their rightful share. But a debutant director has showed the way to profit from the cyberspace. Pawan Kumar, who directed 'Lifu Ishtene', uploaded his film on a site, and it was viewed by more than a thousand people across the world for a nominal fee. The collections this way are comparable to the profits made in, say, Mangalore, creating a new revenue stream for Kannada films. Within days, at least six Kannada films have followed suit, and are now available for internet viewing. Legally, that is. 

Lifu Ishtene

    Significantly, there is no piracy fear as well since it is only streaming video and viewers cannot download the film. 

    Pawan Kumar, who made a dashing debut with Lifu Ishtene, wanted to make his critically acclaimed film available abroad in a legal way. The difficulty was obvious unlike Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films which release with multiple prints abroad. “Each print of the film costs Rs 70,000. Transporting it to the UK or the US with insurance costs the same amount. But most Kannada films do not even recover these costs and there are only a couple of shows in various US cities, says producer A Manjunath. 

Lifu Ishtene-Audio release

    Kumar uploaded his film Lifu Ishtene on his website last month. At least 1,000 people were ready to pay and watch. Pawan ended up making a profit of Rs 3 lakh for his producer this way. This was net profit after taxes and other costs. What was surprising was that the revenue beat the income from the least profitable Kannada film area, Mangalore. Kannada films have seven distribution divisions and Mangalore is the one raking in the least revenue. Pawan had at one stroke created a bigger market. 

www.hometalkies.com

    The next step was creating a dedicated website for legally sharing Kannada film torrents. Thus was born www.hometalkies.com last week. Within a week, 35,000 visitors have signed up, and are demanding to watch hundreds of Kannada films. Sidlingu, Puttakkana Highway, Johnny Mera Naam, Shyloo, Vishnuvardhana and Paramatma are now available on popular demand. There is unprecedented demand for old movies, says Pawan. 

Movies available in www.hometalkies.com

ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD
    A few days ago, Gubbachigalu was uploaded and the first viewer who paid $5 to view it was from Japan. Most visitors are from India, the US and the UK. Since Internet speeds are relatively slow in India, watching streaming videos are not yet a trend here. 1,350 people have paid to watch Lifu Ishtene and some of them were from Denmark and Uganda. I did not even know Kannadigas were present in those countries, says Pawan. Films can be watched on iPhone, iPad and other top-end smart phones and tablets.
    Even people, who download torrents, are more than careful. They have to search for hundreds of websites to find good quality torrent of a particular movie. Then there is the fear of virus. This website is legal, and they only have to pay a small fee. Moreover, producers need not fear piracy as viewers cannot download the film. It is only streaming video, says Pawan.