Sales of Media at Cinema Theatres

Sale of ringtones/Audio CD's/Cassettes and memorabillia are generally assosiated with the retail format in a showroom specifically meant for selling a range of Musical collections like a Musicworld or through a book store like a Landmark or a Crossword. I have always wondered why these shops dont set up licenced outlets in cinema halls for selling music/ringtones as an additional channel on a revenue share basis with Theatres.

I am more likely to buy the Audio CD of Raavan after I come out of the theatre, if I found the movie or the songs a great experience, while I walk out from the hall to the parking lot. This pathway is monetised currently by painting the walls of some brand, but a more related monetisation is through the sale of media related to the movie being screened.

If I attend a Raavan movie, its high probability that I am a fan of Mani Ratnam's previous works or A.R.Rahman's previous audio masterpiences, which would command an impulse buy. This is a wonderful window of oppurtunity for theatres to also increase their revenue base, especially if the theatres have a national prescence. This platform could sell movies/audio CD's, pen drives of ringtones and MP3 Music(if piracy hurts, then put it in a DRM format).

I dont know if there is any entry barrier for Theatres to start this line of business, but I'd defintely be more curious to know more on this topic.

Meedia Consumption

Estimation of Work

Its amazing, to realise how much enthusiasm can dictate the way we think about work. I've had this problem for a while, where I estimate that a particular work would take 'x' hours to completion, then realise that I didnt budget a couple of other factors, and that 'x' is now 1.3x in terms of time. Over a period of time, when the effort put to output obtained doesnt show a steep increase, we start to over estimate the task at hand. I've seen an example of that with my friend who was to send his wedding invite to our batch, but didnt do so, as he was waiting to scan his invite and get a nice byline in the email invite. He took 2 weeks to scan, and was still sitting on his invite in his draft folder. I realised this, when I spoke to him. All it took was an email from me, helping him out on the content, and lo, in an hour, his marriage invite was complete.

I see that a lot of such tasks have mentally acquired a lot of imaginary cobwebs, and I need to spend sometime, blow them off and stop worrying about the cobwebs. Life is calling, I am on my way :-)

Nice Ad about Overcoming Odds

Liked the Haywards 5000 Ad where the hero of "Aamir" says.. " Jab faslon se zyada ho Hosla, toh Life Banta Hain". So true.. we should not allow situations to define us, but must allow situations to become better by conquering it. The last 1 year has been one such learning.

Everytime I am about to throw up my hands, I remember this AD and get back to work. Life is one nice strategy game where you need to keep traversing through the maze, and absorb your surroundings, adapting to the needs of the environment.

India off the Boil

India were knocked out of the Micromax cup yesterday. It was sad to see the side lose the way it did. India have often lowered their guard after starting to get the momentum. There isnt a problem in the strategy to send a second string side, unless they are ready replacements. There is a fair degree of difference between the gods of domestic cricket and they need a certain protective entry on the international stage, with the seniors supporting their prescence. It is unfair to blood youngsters, where 2-3 players make their debut together.

India needs to get back to playing more 'A' side tournaments with other boards, and players from such sides need to be picked after consistent performances at that level. Australia have a consistent system where their academy trains the Australians for attitude,mental toughness and skills. Indians are naturally talented but dont quite have the wherewithal to last at the international circuit, because they are not exposed to the science behind prolonging their careers through a mix of skill and attitude.

Skill and Talent open a number of doors, but beyond a point, its attitude that determines the longevity. India need to pay importance to this fact, as most of the matches that they have lost since the IPL has been because they have been off the boil towards some of the matches and have lacked the intent to win.

Its time we started to look back and observe our attitude and mental toughness towards the game, and maybe that can be the right step to focus on a bunch of 30 talented youngsters to build a team for the future.