MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment is looking at strengthening its entertainment VoD application 'Bolly and Beyond’ which was launched in 2012 and has been downloaded around 20,000 till date.

Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada said, "Bolly and Beyond is a recently launched app and we are right now focusing on its stability. This quarter our focus is to initiate integrated marketing campaign to increase the app’s reach." Apart from India, traffic for the app also comes from USA, UK, Canada and the Middle East.

Gada without disclosing the number of new users and existing users, said, "A substantial percentage of 20,000 users who have downloaded the app, use it every month. Apart from this, we get considerable number of new customers every month. Knowing that we are yet to start promotional activities for this application, the numbers give us confidence. Also the adoption of application among new buyers is high."

The app provides a diversified breadth of content – full movies, video songs, trailers, scenes, special non film content, Bollywood gossips and celebrity videos. The app also offers repurposed and repackaged 15 minute movies created from the original full length movies. Understanding the trend among the Indian audiences, Gada said, "In India, some of the type of content most accessed by our users are – best scenes from movies, movie trailers and songs. This app follows a 'Freemium’ subscription model. Some video content on the application is free; however, to watch all videos, a user needs to subscribe to the app for USD 1.99. It also allows download of certain videos which is charged on a-la-carte basis.

This app has helped the company increase the ways in which it can reach out to users. "It enables us to have a direct connection with our users and understand the kind of content they are looking for. It also enables us to increase the loyalty of our users and reinforce our brand image. Unlike a PC only customer, a mobile customer can receive notifications too," stressed Gada.

The app billing currently happens via Google Wallet & iTunes billing APIs for respective platforms. Talking about the billing challenges in India, Gada said, "Plastic cash is not that common in India. The revenue shares offered in Telecom billing are getting better in case of some Telcos but in the absence of uniformity, it impacts business planning and confidence. There are more emerging models coming up in the industry but we feel this may take a couple of years before showing a marked improvement." But the biggest challenge for the app content provider is poor connectivity. "Even though 3G is popular, its 'low penetration’ and 'non-uniform bandwidth experience’ in India is certainly a hindrance."

The app for Shemaroo Entertainment is developed by an agency Vercingetorix Technologies and the infrastructure and other technical aspects are handled by in-house technical teams.There are few apps which they are currently working on and those are expected to release soon.

Last year in December, the company had launched an app for the film 'Dedh Ishqiya’ as a part of promoting and monetising their products.