Piracy with Pak link: film industry execs held

“We have now arrested Rajesh Chaudhary,associate vice president with UFO Digital Mastering,Neerav Shah (30) who works as manager of Overseas Distribution with Reliance Big Cinemas,and Kalapi Nagda (29),head of Overseas Distribution with Shemaroo Pictures. We have exposed a new chain of racketeers which again leads to Pakistan. Several angles are emerging. There is a strong possibility of further arrests,” said JCP (Crime) Rakesh Maria.

The master print of any movie due for release used to be with Chaudhary,as UFO processes the print digitally. The police said Chaudhary would secretly save the movie on his laptop,write it on a DVD and hand it over to Shah,who in turn,would then pass it on to Nagda. Shah and Nagda used to work together at Shemaroo for six years.

“Nagda would then pass on the print through someone to a man identified only as Zuberi,based in Pakistan,” Maria said.

The police said Chaudhary would receive Rs.2 lakh for each move print,Shah Rs 10,000,and Nagda Rs 35,000,through hawala channels.

The five arrested earlier would also source the master-print from Chaudhary,but this chain led to another Pakistan-based man identified as Asif,the police said. They alleged Pakistan is a major centre for film piracy,with links between the money made from such piracy and terror funding.