Cannes, May 19: More details emerged today in Cannes of the landmark decision taken by Eros, the London-based Indian film company, to secure a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

One is that customers in India and anywhere else in the world should be able virtually to bring cinema into their drawing rooms.

Ken Naz, who has come to Cannes from the US, where he is the Eros chief executive officer, told The Telegraph: “This will enable Bollywood to go global.”

Alongside the London flotation, through which the privately owned company hopes to raise an estimated $100 million, Eros is introducing the latest broadband technology to enable its customers to download films and music from its current library of about 1,300 Bollywood movies.

Naz said: “The flotation indicates future plans by Eros. It is moving in the direction of film production, which is a natural progression. It is part of the company’s strategy, ‘Taking Bollywood places’.”

Eros, which was founded in London in 1977, began by distributing Hindi movies to cinemas in areas with large Indian population, such as parts of London, Birmingham and Manchester.

But since the West is starting to treat Bollywood as a serious business proposition, Eros does not want to be left out.

No longer will Indian customers pick up a copy of Amar Akbar Anthony or Dewaar from the local video store along with the weekend’s shopping. A new service, called Bollywood on Demand, which uses the latest broadband technology, will allow customers to access the Eros library on the Internet at their convenience.

Alice Coelho, international sales and marketing executive for Eros, said in Cannes today that, typically, a UK customer could download 10 films for a monthly subscription of ?9.99. For an annual fee of ?100, the customer would have access to 120 movies.

The chairman of Eros, Kishore Lulla, who heads a company which likes to describe itself as “the world’s largest distributor of Bollywood films”, said of Bollywood on Demand: “We work with Intel on this initiative to influence Bollywood to adopt new media as a new business revenue opportunity. If you don’t accept it, piracy is going to take over this revenue.”

Lulla told Variety, which publishes a daily Cannes issue: “If we adapt to the change, we will be able to generate more revenue via broadband distribution.”

Pointing out that India “has the fifth largest number of Internet users anywhere in the world”, Lulla said: “It’s all about the consumer and making it seamless. It’s not just about downloading it on the computer or the PC. It should be a living room experience. We thought that if the consumer can have the choice to enjoy the content wherever he wants, that would be the best way to go about it.”