Original DVD! Mossser beeear! Naya maal!

The friendly hawker who sells pirated VCDs and DVDs — only to scamper off when police raids happen — is now selling originals.

At first glance, one cannot make out the difference. Take the vendor outside Andheri railway station. The four-legged wooden table, shabby heap of home video labels coated in cheap plastic foils, and a steady stream of customers looking for titles of their choice — the setting is the same.

But on inspection, one notices the Moser Baer branding on most DVDs and VCDs. Priced Rs30-50, these original home video titles of films that released five to six months ago, jostle for attention alongside pirated game CDs, MP3s, and the likes of Daku Ramkali, Jaawani ke aagosh mein, Forest Hump and Saving Private Ryan, all in the same price range.

Two years back, Moser Baer launched original VCDs and DVDs at Rs24 and Rs36 — price points that forced other players in the home video market to slash rates.

The intention was not only to push volumes, but also to combat pirated copies, which sell for similar prices.

Those titles were sold not only at organised retail outlets, but also at mom-n-pop stores. It's only in the last few months that the company got its distributors to tap roadside vendors to sell originals too.