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Seems times are changing at last - for the better, and fast. After all these years of scouring the film festivals and pirated DVD shops (unless we have deep pockets to splurge on the highly-priced original DVDs of foreign films), it seems 2008 is bringing some happy tidings for us, the lovers of world cinema (that is, anything that comes from outside the country minus Hollywood).

Suddenly, Indian companies have started taking marketing rights for a large number of world cinema and at least two dedicated channels to telecast cinema of that kind are readying for launch. And, trust the French to do it - more and more French films are being screened, at least in Delhi and Mumbai, screened mostly free of cost through tie ups with multiplex chains, to introduce the casual moviegoer to the variety that rides with their cinema (hope other countries would also have as active cultural centres / embassies as the French have).

Within the first three weeks of this year, I have come across info about launch of the two channels and Mumbai-based Palador Pictures Pvt Ltd buying rights of nearly 1,000 movies from across the world and entering into tie-ups with retailers to market the films on ground and through online stores.

First, about the two channels (well, one of them is actually aimed at being much beyond just a channel). If cable operators cooperate, they can really give the taste of world cinema to those interior regions of India where people do not have access to cinema barring the local, Bollywood and Hollywood fares. The first channel is a joint venture among NDTV Imagine, Manmohan Shetty, and Sunil Doshi (whom we know as the producer of Rajat Kapoor’s Mixed Doubles, Santosh Sivan’s Navarasa and Sagar Ballary’s Bheja Fry). It will be called NDTV Lumière. The other channel is UTV’s World Movies channel.

World Movies will screen contemporary films, which are box office hits in their home countries. The films will span across genres like drama, suspense, thrillers, award-winning family movies, Japanese horror and Asian action. But it will also screen Hollywood films, so it remains to be seen how much of space is actually given to non-Hollywood foreign films once it is launched. The UTV website says the focus will be on contemporary, commercially successful films in various languages, subtitled in English. The channel is targeted at upmarket viewers, aged 18-35 years and having a global perspective.

NDTV Lumière also claims to be the first “movement” of its kind in India. Information from the company said it will premiere the best of world cinema in Indian theatres immediately following their worldwide release and will also be made available across multiple platforms such as home video, a 24-hour TV Channel, pay-per-view across DTH platforms and Internet downloads. It also has plans to organize events and promotions like lectures by well-known experts from the world of cinema, workshops for film students, and opportunities to interact one-on-one with directors and cast of these films – offering audiences insight and a context to the film.

Like UTV, NDTV Lumière will span across genres from drama, animation and comedy to horror, thrillers and political dramas - and include popular, critically-acclaimed films from across the world and also the finest award-winning international cinema from Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, Pusan, Locarno, Venice Film Festival and other international film festivals. It has announced that it will bring to India films by new age masters like Fatih Akin, Aki Kaurismäki, Elia Suleiman, Pedro Almodóvar, Emir Kusturica, Wong-Kar Wai and Abbas Kiarostami as also by legends like Fellini, Truffaut, Bergman, Louis Malle, Antonioni and Chabrol.

If this is not enough, Palador Pictures Pvt Ltd was bought marketing rights for DVDs of nearly 1,000 of the world’s “greatest and most-awarded films”. While its films will be retailed through Moser Baer, it has also entered into a deal with indiaplaza.in to market them online. First on the shelf from Palador will be a Kurosawa collection of 5 DVDs, a Wong Kar Wai collection of 5 DVDs, and a World Cinema collection of 10 DVDs, priced quite reasonably at Rs 400 each DVD.

I only hope more such players enter this market space, giving us legal access to more and more of world cinema. Maybe, our days of trudging alone the lanes of Palika Bazar in Delhi, and its cousins in other cities, in search of that elusive DVD of that film from that country, about which we have heard so much, is getting over. What say?