Old Is Gold, If Well Sold

A brand that has stood the test of time for over five decades, Shemaroo Entertainment is an example of how timely evolution can aid growth and keep obsolescence at bay.

- Aveek Datta

LONG BEFORE DIGITAL streaming became the way of life it is today, there was another form of binge-watching known to Indians in the 1980s and 1990s. This version, which now seems primitive, entailed making a weekend run to the neighbourhood video library, spending 100 to rent out five video cassettes containing Hindi blockbusters, and feeding one cassette after another into a video cassette player— a marvel of technology at the time—hooked to a cathode-ray tube colour television set. Families would spend entire weekends huddled around the TV in their living rooms and bond over iconic Hindi films ranging all the way from Amitabh Bachchan’s Don to Anil Kapoor’s Beta. This was a time when choices were limited and life was simpler. Multiplexes hadn’t mushroomed yet and private cable television—with its multitude of general entertainment and movie channels—was at an embryonic stage.

Those who have lived through these times would remember a few brands whose logos used to occupy the top right corner of the television screen as these movies would play out. Brands like Ultra, Eagle, and Shemaroo can be recalled immediately. From anecdotal evidence, one could argue that most Hindi films worth their viewership were brought to Indians in home video format by one of these three brands.

With the passage of time and technology, video cassettes got replaced by VCDs, which were then edged out by DVDs, and later even DVDs became passé when viewership moved to digital platforms. The evolution of technology has made dinosaurs of many companies, and unsurprisingly, brands like Ultra and Eagle, once household names in the home video space, faded into oblivion. But Shemaroo Entertainment, which turns 57 this October, proved to be an exception. By continuously reinventing itself and evolving as a medium-agnostic content company, it has not only survived, but thrived.