Online Indian Mart (http://www.onlineindianmart.com), a company based in India, offers a DVD procurement service which I decided to put to the test. I stumbled upon their site while looking for a couple of mythological films which have not been released on DVD overseas. Anyway, I put them to the test and asked them to find Har Har Gange (1979), one of my all time favorites. Less than three and a half hours later, I got an e-mail response notifying me Har Har Gange was now available on their website. Unfortunately the film was on VCD, but I was desperate to see the flick so I added it to my cart. However, when I saw what they were charging for shipping, I reconsidered.

Months later, after a list of 50+ Hindi mythological films I wanted to see, I e-mailed OIM again and asked them to locate whatever they could. After four weeks of searching, they were able to find about 15 of the movies I wanted, as well as other films of the genre (which I didn't want). I got a considerable discount on both shipping and the discs (which were originally marked up quite a bit). I was disappointed they couldn't find more of the titles I had requested and that most of the films were on VCD instead of DVD, but they told me several Indian DVD companies are being taken over and their titles have been recalled. (MusicYogi also told me a similar story)

Anyway, for those of you looking to find some rare films that haven't had a US or overseas release yet, this could be your ticket. They had a buy 3 get 1 free DVD, buy 4 get 1 free VCD promotion a month ago, but now it seems to be replaced with slashed prices all across the board. My $0.02: worth a shot.

Absolutely true. Lot of companies disappeared (B4U, Sky, VideoSound, Spark etc) and copyright for lot of movies are expiring (lot of desi dvd's were introduced in 96/97 to begin with and now expiring after 10 years), so you may find titles available in different manufacturers.

Also the making of DVD in US is not profitable anymore, specially for old movies, so no one is willing to take copyright for old movies and the reason why we have to get it imported from Shemaroo (who was never in mainstream DVD business in US until 2006) and in few unfortunate cases from companies like Ultra, Moser-Bear etc.

In general, the economy and volume in India keeps the manufacturers more attractive to do business in India and ship the indian version to US than making separate products anymore.

For now, Yashraj & Eros are continuing their efforts, but it will be a matter of year or two before they follow Shemaroo or Moser-Bear model.

You mean to say that if an older, more obscure title from the 60s-80s hasn't been released on DVD overseas yet, chances are it never will be? How disheartening. And here I was trying to contact BEI about releasing a few classics from that era--perhaps they really are out of business rather than on an extended manufacturing hiatus.

As for exporting Indian edition discs to the US--that's completely illegal. There are separate film rights for the local and overseas market, as well as cable/TV rights vs DVD or VCD rights. I contacted Nehaflix a while back asking if they could sell some titles which only are sold at India at the moment and explained that they can only sell products made for and intended to be sold in the North American market.