It's the usual hectic Monday at Yash Raj Films (YRF), but the second floor is particularly busy. A brainstorming session is in progress at the Mumbai studio. On the agenda is a new way of watching films and other shows - not in a theatre next to you, but on the screen on your desk, or, better still, in the palm of your hand.

If content is king, the web is its new throne. Not surprisingly, everybody who is somebody is vying for a slice of the digital pie. Besides YRF, others in the race are other big production houses such as Eros International, Viacom 18 and Balaji Telefilms, broadcasters Star and Sony and online platforms including YouTube and Amazon Instant Video, to name just a few.

"You need to go where young people are hanging out. For them the action is happening on their smartphones or desktops," says Ashish Patil, business and creative head, Y Films, a part of YRF.

Indeed, in India, every second a mobile connection gets activated, says an Ericsson Mobility Report released earlier this week. So this is certainly not a segment that content creators can afford to ignore, points out Smita Jha, leader - entertainment and media practice, India, PriceWaterhouseCoopers. "Media consumption pattern is moving to anywhere, anytime, any device," she says.

There's a colossal market for original content on the web - and companies such as Y Films are well aware of it. Since they started their first original web show - a four-episode series called Man's World - on YouTube in September, the number of viewers on the Y Films channel has jumped from 18,000 to 1.5 lakh. This was followed by Jumbo Jutts, a series of musical parody videos. The channel now runs a weekly show called Baang Baaja Baarat.

"We are looking at putting at least one original content on our online channel every month," Patil says.

That the platform for entertainment has changed dramatically in the last few years is evident from the fact that YouTube, the popular video-sharing website where 100 hours of videos are uploaded every minute, is going to work with online content creators. Earlier this month, it launched YouTube Space in partnership with filmmaker Subhash Ghai's film school Whistling Woods International to train the next generation of Indian filmmakers for online media.

"In the past year, the amount of content loaded to YouTube in India has doubled. So we decided to support this community," says Satya Raghavan, head of YouTube online partnerships and development, India. Similar ventures exist elsewhere in the world - Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin and in parts of Brazil. "From idea generation to filming, editing and uploading on YouTube, the potential creators can utilise our fully equipped Space and produce their own content," Raghavan adds.

Broadcasters are moving to the web too. Star India's digital offering Hotstar launched as a mobile app in February has introduced several new online shows. Multi Screen Media's online entertainment division Sony Liv has three original web shows while Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's Ditto TV launched an instrumental musical show Life is Music only for its web viewers. It will soon produce short films, web series and talk shows for the digital audience.

While the majors hoist their flags in virgin areas, independent and small filmmakers are not far behind either. When Mumbai-based filmmaker Sandeep Mohan made Hola Venky! in 2013 he didn't want a theatrical release because of problems with the censor board during his debut film Love Wrinkle Free.

"So I just released Hola Venky! in a few theatres in the US. A week later, I released the movie online in India," Mohan says. The film, made on a budget of Rs 10 lakh, recovered its cost within a few weeks. "I still get some amount of money when people watch it. The shelf life of my movie increased because it is available online," Mohan explains.

Many new websites have come up which provide filmmakers with similar options.

In July, a group of film buffs in Kerala launched Reelmonk.com, which enables users to watch the latest Malayalam films on the digital platform legally at a download cost of Rs180 for an ordinary print and Rs300 for a high definition print. Reelmonk has persuaded filmmakers to launch films online on the same day as theatrical releases. Similar services - Herotalkies.com, launched in Chennai last year, and Fliqvine, launched in April - seek to help independent filmmakers showcase their work.

"A lot of interesting films are made outside of the studio infrastructure but do not reach audiences through the traditional distribution medium. So we wanted to create a platform for filmmakers to release and monetise their film online," says Prasun Kumar, founder of Fliqvine. "People get to watch the movies legally within a few weeks of theatrical releases, and from the comfort of their home screens," adds Pradeep V.S., chief executive officer, Herotalkies.

Last month, the Reliance Industries-backed Viacom18 announced its digital platform Voot to be launched in the first quarter of 2016. Voot will be the "go to destination" for online entertainment, holds Gaurav Gandhi, the chief operating officer of Viacom18 Digital Ventures. "It will include content from the Viacom18 television network channels as well as original content. We will also be acquiring third party content for certain genres," Gandhi says.

The focus, the players stress, is on the youth - the most avid users of the Internet and smartphones. "For long the television channels ignored the youth," says Baang Baaja Baraat director Anand Tiwari. They can no longer afford to do so.

A report - 'Digital Media: Rise of on-demand content' - by consulting firm Deloitte India, released in April, points out that about 47 per cent of mobile data traffic in 2014 was contributed by streaming or downloading audio and video services. And this number is expected to touch 74 per cent by 2020. The combined spend by an Internet user on mobile and entertainment increased by 34 per cent in the last two years.

It is no surprise that the big companies are jumping into the fray. ErosNow, an on-demand entertainment portal from Eros International, has announced six new shows with stars such as Bipasha Basu, Anil Kapoor, Chitrangada Singh, Nana Patekar, Kunal Roy Kapoor and Konkana Sen Sharma. Kalki Koechlin and Parineeti Chopra have appeared in Y Films' web series. Balaji Telefilms is currently in the process of putting together a skilled team that will create slick web content.

Many find the new platforms especially attractive because they do not have to grapple with censorship problems. "There's no rigid censorship as there is on television or cinema," Tiwari says. "One doesn't have to bother about cuss words."

There are other advantages too. Small filmmakers don't have to worry about distribution. "My online audience may be niche but it is dedicated," Mohan adds.

There is some concern about the arrival of the giants which many fear may end up swamping the smaller filmmaker. One of the pioneers of web content in India, Arunabh Kumar, founder and chief experiment officer at The Viral Fever (TVF), believes that with the crowd comes "clutter", and the sound of an alarm bell. "We have to create better content," he says.

TVF would know. Less than three years old, it has already 12 popular web shows including Permanent Roommates which became the second most-watched long form web series in the world (after Video Game High School) with over nine million views for five episodes, and Pitchers, a show that started in June. It has now launched its own channel, TVF Play.

"They are the baap of web series in India," Patil of Y Films stresses.

But despite the boom, a question remains. Is revenue generation happening on an equal footing?

"Not yet," Patil admits. "But it will soon start. We just have to figure out different areas of profitability." Creators are hoping that better quality bandwidth and cheaper smartphones will bring in millions of more viewers, and eventually pots of gold.

For now, since content is available for free for viewers (exclude data costs), most web series are advertiser supported. Man's World was sponsored by the United Nations as a social message film on gender equality and Permanent Roommates by real estate portal Commonfloor. "The toughest exercise is to weave a story around a brand without making it an in-your-face advertisement," TVF's Kumar says.

The medium may bring in money from another front. Some filmmakers hope that they will be able to combat piracy through this mode - and regain lost money. "Official channels for online release of movies will help in decreasing piracy and thereby the losses that production houses incur," Pradeep says.

This is an industry that is going to expand exponentially. The Deloitte report states that monthly spending on digital media, especially on entertainment, is expected to grow by 2.5 times by 2020. "While at Voot we are evaluating all monetisation models, we will start with an advertising-supported video on demand play option. We have plans of building a subscription model too," Gandhi says.

Of course, the big screen is not going to gather dust in the near future. But the small screen will carry on creating a buzz. After all, it believes that the world is in your hand.

WEB FORECAST

• India to have 150 million 5G mobile subscriptions by 2021
• Video accounted for around 50 per cent of mobile data traffic in 2015
• An Indian user consumes 102 minutes of mobile media and 79 minutes of desktop media
• Digital media spending expected to grow by 2.5 times by 2020

(Source: Deloitte, Ericsson)

The Blockbusters
(Some popular shows)

• Pitchers - TVF
• Bang Baaja Baraat – Y Films
• LoveBytes – Sony Liv
• Hola Venky! – Fliqvine
• Baked - ScoopWhoop