Bollywood production house Eros International’s new release, Aa Dekhe Zara, will become the first film to be available on demand for direct-to-home (DTH) service users less than two weeks after its cinema hall release, as multiplex owners and movie producers continue to squabble over sharing revenue from box office sales.

Recently DTH service providers came to the rescue of another film production house, UTV’s Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, which lost out on revenues from multiplexes because of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Eros International spent Rs 3.5 crore on marketing the movie. To make up for the loss of box office sales at multiplexes, the movie production house has inked a revenue sharing deal with Dish TV to showcase the movie.

“Unfortunately, due to the ongoing boycott of new films by multiplex owners, the movie could only be released on single screens and not in the multiplex chains,” said Jyoti Deshpande, chief operating officer and commercial director, Eros International.

“We have not decided on the pricing of the movie yet. But movie producers are waking up to the importance of DTH industry, which has 11 million subscribers, of which Dish TV has about 5 million,” said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV.

Usually, DTH service providers charge their viewers Rs 75-100 for a day. Dish TV claims it received 50,000 hits for the movie ‘Fashion’ showcased on its movie-on-demand service.