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largest and most influential Bollywood-centric digital media companies.
While all three companies are interesting cases to consider, I concentrate on
Saavn.com because it is focused exclusively on Bollywood, unlike Desihits.
com or Jaman.com. Saavn.com’s industrial identity is defined by its focus on
Bollywood, as evident not only in the slogan that accompanies all Saavn.com
advertisements—“Bringing Bollywood to the World”—but also in its claim
to offer a “Passport to Bollywood.”

Saavn.com: “Bringing Bollywood to the World”

The story begins in the early 2000s when Vin Bhat decided, after a few years
in the world of investment banking in New York City, to try his hand at being
an entrepreneur. With three other colleagues, Bhat launched a software com-
pany that focused on servicing media clients and designing contextual adver-
tising. As with several such ventures in the postboom dot-com economy,
Bhat and his colleagues sold their company to a venture capital firm and,
in a move that would bring them in close contact with the media world in
Bombay, decided to spend a few months in India. “This was 2003–04 and we
didn’t really have a plan. It was about taking some time off while also getting
to know the media industry in a place that was attracting attention across
the world,” Bhat recalled. Through contacts at major banks in India, Bhat
and his colleagues were able to meet a range of media industry professionals
across the film, television, and music sectors in Bombay. According to Bhat,
this experience was formative. In particular, what sparked their interest was
the recognition that Bombay-based professionals were struggling to estab-
lish a presence in overseas territories. “When we heard from so many people
that it was difficult to get a sense of the [overseas] market when there isn’t
proper reporting and the distribution chain is opaque, it got us thinking,”
Bhat recounted. “We wanted to go back to the drawing board, to figure out
how to solve this problem in the industry.”
Back in the United States, Bhat and his colleagues began by approaching
cable operators. With the help of former advisors, one of whom had been an
executive vice president at Fox Broadcasting and another a vice president at
Bravo, they were able to initiate conversations with major companies such
as Time Warner Cable early in the fall of 2003. As it happened, their visit
took place in the context of cable companies across North America exploring
the possibilities of Video-on-Demand (VOD) services as a way to tap into
the sought-after “Asian American audience.” To be sure, cable television in
the United States has been a vital space for a range of transnational, ethnic,
and exilic media. This has, however, been limited to public and leased access