KUALA LUMPUR: P. Ramlee, the late Malay actor and movie director from the 50s and 60s, gained fame on our cinema and TV screens. Now his fame will spread to the smallest screen — the one on our mobile devices.

Mobile content developer Billadam is using clips of comedies starring P. Ramlee (1929-1973) in electronic greetings that can be sent between the gadgets. This will also help introduce young Malaysians to the works of the local legend, it said.

Billadam has acquired the rights to use 13 P. Ramlee comedies from Shaw Bros Studio. Among the movies are the Bujang Lapok adventures, the Do Re Mi series, and Labu Labi.

The company spent about RM5mil to acquire and edit the films for its mobile service.

Its chief executive officer, Amir Muhamad, describes the service as “something old for something new.”

“Downloading content onto mobile phones is a trend today and what better content to offer than P. Ramlee’s movies which are still as popular now as they were in his heyday,” he said.

“A lot of the lines in the movies are not only funny but contain encouraging messages that can be used to cheer someone up or offer an apology in a less awkward way.”

Adding colour

Billadam also took it upon itself to inject a bit more fun into the videos by adding cute animations to complement each clip.

An example is how the Billadam creative team added an apologetic looking avatar to compliment a scene where P. Ramlee and the other actors sing Maafkan Kami (Forgive us) from the comedy Pendekar Bujang Lapuk.

“So the next time you think you’ve wronged someone, you can send this as an apology,” Amir said with a laugh. “You’re bound to be forgiven.”

Also, P. Ramlee’s humour is not lost on today’s youths, said Taufik Abdullah, Billadam’s president, adding that that makes Billadam’s venture a worthwhile endeavour.

“The younger generation may find these comedies even funnier than we (the older generation) do,” he added.

Users can also customise their messages if they don’t think the default text is good enough. This feature, Amir said, helps set Billadam’s service apart from those of other mobile content providers.

Now’s the time

According to Taufik, the time is ripe to be producing local MMS (multimedia messaging service) content because the number of MMS users in Malaysia is growing.

“According to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, there were about 1.5 million cellphone users who sent MMSes last year and this is just from one service provider,” he said.

Billadam has plans to acquire the rights to classic western comedies, which it wants to turn into similar e-greetings for use in overseas markets where English is widely spoken.

But for now, it is focusing on the regional distribution of its P. Ramlee content. “We have targeted the Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia markets where P. Ramlee movies are also popular,” Taufik said.