In the digital age, it's hardly surprising that streaming services such as both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have become the kings of the video, where it was previously rental stores and actual cinemas. Now, Amazon have taken on the task of releasing their first Bollywood movie in a bid to muscle in on the market - here's how it could end up working out for them.

Not the first Bollywood movie streamed
Intriguingly, whilst Amazon Prime Video does feature a fair few Bollywood productions on their platform, this is their first dive into creating a Hindi-language Bollywood movie. In a bid to capitalize on their new venture, the American firm has hired India's highest-paid actor, namely Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, as the lead for the movie entitled Ram Setu. The move to Amazon producing its first fully-fledged Bollywood production has been arguably brewing since the middle of 2015, when Amazon announced they were expanding their Prime operations into India with an associated $5 billion budget.

From then on, the Indian market has actually been one of Amazon's fastest-growing, as Jeff Bezos himself stated as he told an audience of Bollywood filmmakers. The hope with Ram Setu is that it can take Amazon to the next level in India and only increase their prominence. Fundamentally, the idea of releasing a Hindi-language Bollywood movie is designed to appeal directly to the Indian market and help to strengthen ties between the streaming service and its subscribers. If Amazon can get it right, this could be the start of something big.

A shift from e-commerce to movie production in India?

When it comes to e-commerce, Amazon has a 31.2% share in India and this is expected to rise as they continue to gain a larger foothold in one of the world's most populated nations. Furthermore, with over 10 million users of Prime, Amazon have a readymade viewer base for any domestic productions, be it for feature films or new comedy series. The service also gained over one million new subscribers just thanks to the Prime Day promotion Amazon runs yearly.

As the Indian economy is one of the higher-growing in the world, too, it's highly likely that more will subscribe to Amazon Prime and other similar products. Prime Video has, in essence, come as an added bonus to the core element of its e-commerce free-delivery product but is now growing to be a significant factor for people signing up.

A monopoly on potential Ram Setu fans
What's more, as much as there is a cinema distribution deal for Ram Setu, the rights to stream it are owned solely by Amazon. What this means is that, if people want to solely watch Ram Setu from the comfort of their own home, Amazon already have a monopoly over those customers.

They've done similar things for the sequels to both Borat and Coming To America which, in turn, have also netted the firm a fair amount of not only revenue but also new subscribers to the platform. In addition, Amazon also hold the sole streaming rights for the insanely popular Lord Of The Rings, which also puts fans of this franchise in a similar position to those who've wanted to watch the likes of Borat 2 and Coming 2 America.

Streaming looks to be the clear way forwards

Streaming services and the act of live-streaming on their own look to have become vital ways of producing entertaining content for a range of platforms, in a range of industries. This prominence of streaming exists outside of the more traditional spheres and has extended into plenty of other sectors across the internet.

One such sector that has made use of the capabilities of streaming is the online casino industry. Looking at William Hill Live Casino, as an example, we can see that live video streaming is being used to recreate traditional casino games like blackjack, using real-life presenters and dealers managing the games.

Beyond that, live video streaming continues to build communities in gaming and help to create a new generation of celebrities. For example, platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming allow players to stream themselves playing while discussing a range of topics. Many of these have become genuine stars, including Turkish-American Hasan Piker and India's own Mohit 'SuperMad' Rajgaria.

Looking back at Ram Setu, though, given the star power that Amazon have put behind the film and also their current market position in India, it's definitely not out of the question that the movie could do incredibly well. What's more, if they take a similar line to that with Borat 2 and other productions, it could bring a shedload more subscribers across and give Amazon another leg-up.