PUNE: With the market growing in India, ADAG’s video-on-demand (VoD) and DVD rental firm Bigflicks.com has firmed up huge expansions plans.

Reliance Entertainment is also expected to launch Big TV, its direct-to-home satellite TV service, next month. Starting April, Bigflicks intends to increase the number of stores from 21 in six cities to 500 in 35 cities by March 09. The company will use the franchisee route for this expansion.

Bigflicks COO Kamal Gianchandani said, “I see the home-video market in India growing phenomenally at 30-35% year-on-year for at least five years. Till now, there were no retail outlets for home-video so viewers did not have much by way of options in home entertainment. They had to rely on mom-&-pop stores. Now, malls and organised retail will sell CDs and DVDs and grow the home-video market. As more rental outlets come up, the business will grow.”

“Reliance ADAG has plans for the entertainment business. We have a motion picture business, a studio, an animation company, multiplexes and it makes sense for us to be present in all segments of entertainment,” Mr Gianchandani said.

The company will take the franchisee route to drive this growth, according to Mr Gianchandani. “We have 21 stores currently in six cities. We will open 29 more stores in 10 more cities by mid-April,” he said.