"We are the only company that is offering distribution facility for Bengali films in the US and Canadian market in all the channels," Databazaar CEO Oney Seal told PTI over the phone from the US.
"This also allows the simultaneous launch of Bengali films in India and the US, which was not possible earlier. Non-resident Bengali film lovers had to wait for a few months or watch the same on pirated disks," he said.
The journey began after Databazaar distributed its home production, 'Dwando', on iTunes and iPads and movie rental portal netflix, as well as in retail stores.
"Since 2010, we have signed 25 titles and so far, producers have earned Rs 75 lakh for organised distribution in the US and Canada. The company had handled titles like 'The Japanese Wife' and 'Ek Tarar Khoje'," Seal said.
He said, "In future, we will increase the revenue with increase in awareness among the half million Bengali-speaking population here and also among the foreign film lovers."
The business model for Databazaar is simple and there is no cost involved in releasing the film for the producers, which ensures them risk free-revenue on a full-fledged release or a release on electronic media in overseas markets.
Databazaar also produces and retails Bengali movie DVDs at a cost of USD 4.99 to counter pirated discs of the films.
Seal said, "Databazaar is now focusing on IPTV in future, with increasing demand for it in the US."
"We have already launched a Databazaar channel on the IPTV platform in operators like Roku and we are adding more. We are offering Hindi and a few other regional language titles, beside Bengali, on this channel," he said.