Shemaroo has tied up with BookMyShow to sell online access to films before their rights are sold to subscription video-on-demand and TV channels, the company announced in a press release on Wednesday. ShemarooMe, the company's streaming service, will be selling access to view these films on a transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) basis. The company is calling this new platform "ShemarooMe Box Office", reminiscent of Hotstar's Multiplex launched in June. But unlike Hotstar, films releasing on ShemarooMe will be sold à la carte, as has been the standard for COVID-driven direct-to-video releases in markets like the US. Can TVOD work in India? Our take This distinction is important, as it lets producers bypass the theatrical window during the COVID-19 pandemic and still keep their options open for subscription-based streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video and Hotstar. But one thing to note here is that this model is unlikely to attract any big ticket Bollywood releases — TVOD releases are not significant in India like they are in developed countries. When Trolls: World Tour went direct-to-digital in the US, it earned over $50 million in VOD sales. For context, Netflix's India subsidiary made $62 million in all of the financial year 2018–19. In India, which has a fraction of the TVOD platforms that are available in the US, the opportunity from releasing films this way is limited to driving marketing buzz for a film before selling streaming or broadcast rights. And there's the added challenge of getting big-ticket films in an environment where…
