This paper discusses the nature and status of interactive multimedia technologies in Open Universities. In distance education, technologies are used primarily to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning, to individually tailor instruction, and to provide specialized and variety of innovative programmes, which are generally either not taught or are difficult to be taught through the conventional system of teaching-learning. Increased interactivity of the programs permits greater communication, and may lead to increased motivation, creativity and independence among learners. Insufficient cooperation and coordination between technology experts and curriculum developers, educational policy makers, technical support staff, faculty and students can however ha,mper effectiveness of interactive instruction. Resistance to innovation can be a major barrier to implementation of interactive technologies. Planning and implementation of educational technologies should start from a clear educational need or goal; 'to improve the quality of on-campus instruction, to supplement a program, and to increase access. Different technologies suit different purposes. A combination of technologies is usually most appropriate. The choice of technology should be based on factors such as educational form, education field, characteristics of learning audience, and local conditions. As large computer systems become available more widely and international communications costs decrease, open electronic universities will offer a variety of distance programs via global communication networks. The current exponential expansion of international networks for scientific, technological and educational communication in lndia shows that such advances may be available sociner than expected.