Now this is a first. The power of social networking and the Web 2.0 is taking Bollywood by storm- with celebrities tweeting and movie publicities and marketing campaigns running through Facebook pages. But the new Studio 18 movie – Striker takes it to a whole another level.

The movie premieres on Feb 5th in India in theatres. But, the worldwide release will be on YouTube. As far as my knowledge goes, this is a first for a major Bollywood production, and apart from Sundance indies, we haven’t seen anything like this before even from Hollywood. Except for the US [where viewing the movie will cost 5$], viewing this movie on YouTube will be free [MUFT MUFT MUFT]

The movie will be screened here [ Studio 18's YouTube channel ]. There is a lot more on the channel – from exclusive footage of making of the movie, to Siddharth – the lead actor giving us reasons to watch the movie. There’s more to it – they have an iPhone app – a Striker version of the carrom game Now that’s another first.

So, what’s this #strikerwatchalong?

All across the world, awesome Bolly lovahs are coming together to watch this movie simultaneously, on Feb 7th, 6pm GMT and will also be group-chatting about the same on Google wave. Exciting stuff indeed.

The idea of the group chat wave for #StrikerWatchAlong was initiated by Beth and thanks to her, there are already 24 people who have joined the Wave, and still counting. It’s so awesome to see people from Abhu Dhabi to Australia to Dubai to London to Chicago to Germany.. you get it.

And if you feel like joining, just add your Google wave ID in the comments section below.

See you on the 7th awesome peeps.

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Some stuff about #StrikerWatchAlong on Beth’s blog.

Striker watchalong.

Update on Striker watchalong

Okay, I am running late with my dissertation. 35-40% complete with more than 10k words to go. But this stuff is pretty strong enough to keep away from. So I’ll be short. Dev Benegal – the guy who made English August with Rahul Bose in 1994 ( and still has to release the DVD, why this torture) is finally here with his new one. It’s called Road Movie and the cast list is bloody impressive: Abhay Deol, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik (the previous two starred together in Brick Lane, ‘member?). It’s premiering at the Toronto Film Festival on September 18, 2009. Pretty darn interesting stuff. Have a look at the trailer below.

Road, Movie from dev benegal on Vimeo.

***And after the jump, do check out the 2 min Sneak Peek of the movie.***

Road, Movie 2min Sneak Peek from dev benegal on Vimeo.

I must mention that I am very impressed by the choices that Abhay Deol is making. It is a bit too early to say this I know, but he is fast becoming the new-age Naseer! And that is an awesome thing. Easily the best of the Deols…including Esha