CD le lo

Now that it’s summer, you expect the ice-cream cart to do its rounds of the neighbourhood. What Rajkumar sells is not ice-cream, but something even more mouth-watering for film buffs — he vends original prints of CDs and DVDs. Damini Purkayastha tells more.

Now that it’s summer, you expect the ice-cream cart to do its rounds of the neighbourhood. What Rajkumar sells is not ice-cream, but something even more mouth-watering for film buffs — he vends original prints of CDs and DVDs.

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The discs are all from Moser Baer — this is an initiative by the company to discourage piracy — and carts like Rajkumar’s fan out across Delhi every day. Rajkumar starts around mid-morning and camps out near a cluster of office buildings at lunchtime. As the staff step out, they flock to him for new films. “I am in Sector 12 in the mornings, in Sector 25 in the evenings and I wind up at about 9.30 pm,” says Rajkumar. The vendors do have designated routes, but “we can go anywhere as long as there are sales”, he adds.

Asif Tiwari of Pandey Book Shop, which allocates these CD/DVD carts, says there are about 10 such carts in Noida alone, and average daily sale per cart is 8-10 discs. With familiarity, this number will rise, he hopes.

Customers love the novelty and ease of buying. Publisher Anupriya Roy, who works in GK, is looking forward to a movie cart at her doorstep. “I’d definitely end up watching more movies,” she says. Hotel executive Deepak Arora, usually too busy to visit a shop to buy films, is also excited by this idea. The summer suddenly looks very promising.