For movie-lovers who have to fall back upon film festivals as the only source of quality world movies, the wait might soon be over with HBO planning to introduce a permanent category of non-American movies on prime time television.
The new experiment, in its planning stage, would take off within three to four months to give cineastes more than just Hollywood fare on the tube, Shruti Bajpai, director marketing, HBO Asia, said.
"We have been getting a lot of requests from viewers who want to see quality foreign movies. This has led us to formulate a new segment wherein we can bring the best of world movies to 15 million Indian homes," Bajpai said.
The segment would be a layered one, just like all other HBO presentations.
"We would have themes similar to those in the Hollywood productions that you currently see. For instance, we could have a series on French period films or Japanese war movies or simply love stories," she said.
The films, sub-tilted in English, would be for a particular section of film-buffs who are keen on watching contemporary and old world foreign films.
"And eastern India has a major share of such viewers."
Sponsorship, Bajpai said, would not be a problem as corporates were exhibiting a different trend these days.
"Instead of us approaching them, sponsors want to be associated with any good quality product. So we will have a lot may people vying to be associated with this new experiment."
