By Adam Kramer
Movies posters advertising upcoming attractions and classic films plaster the entrance and hallway leading up to the Universal Audio and Video store.
The store has the look of a Blockbuster or neighborhood video store except for one critical difference: the movie playing on the TV in the back is not “Toy Story” or “Election,” but one of the thousands of Indian movies that line the walls of the small shop.
“Our vision was to provide a good service to our community,” said Mathew George, one of the two owners of Universal Audio and Movies. “Over the last 10 years, we couldn't get any good movies. That is why we observed the need for the video store.”
The owners, George and Rajeev Sekharan, two friends who met in New York 10 years ago after immigrating to the United States from Kerala, India, opened the store in May 1998 at 260-09 Hillside Ave. in Floral Park.
They said the store was necessary because Indians in the Glen Oaks and Floral Park communities could not get any Indian movies on video without going to Jackson Heights.
In addition, George said they could not find any videos in their native language, Malayalam, except poor quality ones in grocery stores. Grocery stores have movie rentals but not a wide selection.
Movies in the grocery stores are just a side business, a way to attract customers to the shop to buy food and household items.
George said the grocery stores do not get good or new movies and sometimes they are bad pirated copies. Illegal copies are video cassettes that someone made by filming the screen in the movie theater, he explained.
George said he rents the movies for $1 per week because that is what the grocery stores charge.
“The grocery stores have messed up the business because they charge so little,” he said. “But the store makes enough money to survive and keep running.”
Universal Audio's 2,200 active customers have a selection of more than 8,000 videos in four languages – Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Punjabi – in addition to over 600 DVDs. And their customers can choose from a wide variety of old and new movies, he said.
“The older movies from 1960 to 1975 are preferred by our older customers,” said George. “Seventy percent of our business is the new movies. For particular titles we get them in three months, but on average it takes one year to get movies from South India.”
George said most of his customers emigrated from India, but the Indians born in the United States only like the Hindu movies ” because of all the dance and modern stuff.”
Anju Varughese, 21, a Queens College student who lives in Glen Oaks said, she comes to the store to get Hindi music and videos.
“A lot of young kids listen to Hindu music and watch videos. It is a good way to learn the language and keep up with the culture,” she said.
“The store also has movies in my native tongue, which is good for my parents because they can get their movies.”
Universal Audio and Movies is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and can be reached at 831-0285.
