A chat about an AI bot that fetches movies you love from all over the web

Cocktail. Photo credit: HD wallpapers.

[Scene I]: The weekend

Arun and Riya are looking forward to a weekend of watching movies with friends after a hectic week at work. Soon their friends, Dilip, Samaira, and Mitali turn up. Drinks and snacks are served, and they settle down on sofas in the sitting room.

Dilip: So, have you guys decided on the movie yet?

Riya: Just the thought of finding a movie is such a pain.

Arun: Seriously! We live with technology all around, and yet searching for movies is so antiquated. You google for something, hunt for hours on websites, and end up with a dud!

Samaira: Hey, guess what, we found this website called Flickstree.

Riya: Oh, no! Not another movie website. There are zillions of them, and we still can never find the movie we want!

Mitali: But why bother so much, just download from a torrent site – it’s so simple!

Dilip: Are you nuts, Mita? Torrent sites are illegal in India, you can land up in jail for up to three years, and even be fined for up to 3 lakhs – why risk that?

Mitali: Oh! That’s crazy! I mean, I had heard about the illegality, vaguely, but never took it seriously. So, is Flickstree legal? How does it work?

Samaira: It’s a new startup. And they want to make it easier for you to find movies streamed on various sites. Like, for example, if Neerja is available on Hotstar, if you click on Neerja on Flickstree, you will be taken to the Hotstar site to watch the movie.

Dilip: Basically, Flickstree rounds up movies from Netflix, YouTube, iTunes, Google Play Movies, Spuul, and so on.

Mitali: But why would any movie streaming company want to share space with its rival companies on Flickstree? Hotstar, for example, may not want to be sitting side-by-side with, say, Netflix, isn’t it?

Dilip: It’s because no business can afford not to be on the platform once it has enough users. Like huge brands selling through Amazon.

[Scene II] – Meet the production team