Amazon Prime Video launched a movie rental service in India on Thursday, starting with the likes of The Batman, Scream, Moonfall, The Matrix Resurrections, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. At prices ranging from Rs. 99 to Rs. 499, Prime members can rent movies in high-definition (HD) or Ultra HD 4K.
Alongside, Prime Video promised to release more than 40 original series and movies over the next two years.
The world’s second-most populous nation with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, India is a valuable market for Amazon and its rivals Netflix and Disney’s Disney+ Hotstar.
“We are super excited about the launch,” Gaurav Gandhi, head of Amazon Prime Video India said at a function, adding that the service would widen customers’ reach and choice. It enables them to pay per movie, instead of a flat monthly fee.
Along with this, the OTT platform of the US e-commerce giant also announced over 40 new titles, in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, across original series, original movies, and co-productions that it plans to launch over the next 24 months.
The service recently completed half a decade of super-serving customers in India and announced that it will more than double its investment in Prime Video India over the next 5 years.
Among the titles announced by Amazon Prime Video were new seasons of hit web series such as Made in Heaven, Pataal Lok, Mirzapur, The Family Man, and Breath: Into The Shadows. Amazon Prime Video also announced several new web series. This includes Bollywood superstar Shahid Kapoor’s OTT debut Farzi.
The company also announced new multi-year licensing deals and co-productions with some of the country’s biggest and most successful studios. Prime video will also foray into original movie production in India with films in Hindi and Telugu, to be released directly on the service.
The streaming service is aiming to become a home for talent, it said. It is working with a wide set of diverse creators with unique, cinematic voices from across the country. Almost 70 percent of the new upcoming titles will feature new talent – both in front of and behind the camera. Furthermore, Prime Video is enhancing the scope of its unscripted series catalog to explore genres like biographies, true-crime, and investigative docudramas.
