Producers reel under phantom menace

A pirated video cassette of the Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit starrer Pukar, which released last week, will cost you Rs 250, while a VCD is priced at Rs 300, says an attendant at Video Plaza at Lamington Road. The Bobby Deol-Rani Mukherji starrer Badal, which released last Friday, is available for Rs 500, he says. Hollywood films cost Rs 200each, while a porn film is yours for Rs 500. 8220;The rates are not fixed. We sell cassettes and CDs to regulars for as little as Rs 150,8221; says an attendant at another shop.

On the pavement opposite Handloom House at Fountain, at least half-a-dozen makeshift shops sell porn films for just Rs 350. Two other shops selling Hindi and Hollywood films can be found on Colaba Causeway. At Fountain, outside Akbarallys store, Eros Cassettes openly displays the movies available, while a few steps ahead, Can Can Video Centre in Yusuf Building even has a basement room that stores hoards of films for sale and hire.

8220;All we can do is inform the police,8221; shrugs distributor Tolu Bajaj of Metro Films which distributed Indra Kumar8217;s Mann and Subhash Ghai8217;s Taal. Cable and video piracy eats considerably into a film8217;s business, says Bajaj, adding that local police are fully aware of piracy. 8220;As distributors, we employ copyright protectors who inform us every time they hear of a new film being shown on cable. Weinform the police in turn. But that very week, the film surfaces on cable again,8221; Bajaj says.

Deepa Mehta8217;s 1947: Earth is a good example of a film that suffered enormously due to piracy as it was released in cinema halls a good three months after pirated video cassettes and VCDs had already done their rounds. 8220;The print got copied during a screening of the film at London,8221; says earth co-producer Jhamu Sughand. 8220;It takes less than a day to make thousands of copies of a film,8221; he informs, saying the film8217;s business was affected by over 50 per cent due to piracy. Suggesting that the Copyright Act be made stricter in order to control piracy, Sughand says producers and distributors might be able to stop cable piracy to an extent, but not video piracy. 8220;You can catch defaulter cable operators red-handed, but what do you do in the case of video piracy? It8217;s practically impossible to catch them at the right time,8221; he says.

Distributor Rajesh Thadani of RG International informs that controllingcable piracy is no easy task either. 8220;When my film Jab Pyaar Kissi Se Hota Hai was released, we got a tip-off about a cable operator in Juhu showing the film on his network. So we promptly informed the police and accompanied them. By the time we got there, the cable operator had already stopped screening the film,8221; he recounts.

Producer Yash Johar says it is beyond the means of a filmmaker to curb piracy. 8220;Copyright laws need to be made more stringent,8221; he says. 8220;We take so much effort, put in so much money and labour, and at the end of the day, somebody with no investment at all reaps the harvest,8221; he complains.

Audiences are also to blame, feels Johar. 8220;Tickets rates are high, but that doesn8217;t mean people should go out and buy pirated CDs of the film,8221; he says. In any case, the police take too long to crack cases, he says. Johar recommends that a non-bailable arrest be made in the case of defaulters.

Trade analyst Amod Mehra points a finger towards the film industry itself. 8220;Oftendistributors are afraid to make a hue and cry about piracy because they know the underworld is involved,8221; Mehra says. 8220;Many producers don8217;t give permission to conduct raids on cable operators, fearing the hand of the underworld,8221; he adds. Mehra, who believes that the primary source of pirated video cassettes and VCDs is Malaysia, explains that piracy occurs when a film8217;s print is exported to the overseas distributor. The defaulters either work hand-in-glove with overseas distributors themselves, securing the print for piracy from them, or in tandem with the processing house which allows them to copy a print during the despatch process. 8220;It8217;s a quick process which takes hardly four hours,8221; Mehra says. 8220;In fact, several producers hire pirated copies of films made by their rival filmmakers,8221; he reveals.

An officer at the Lamington Road police station explains: 8220;Raids are conducted regularly, and a lot of material is confiscated from these shops. But these defaulters are well connected. We receiveorders from higher-ups telling us to let go of them, sometimes even instructing us to return the material seized in the raid.8221; The officer denies that the police are involved as well.

Film distributors and producers insist that piracy needs to be controlled, and they single out the government as the one who can do something about this. 8220;The film business is losing several crores each year because of piracy. It8217;s not something that can be ignored or overlooked,8221; said an A-list filmmaker. 8220;Perhaps the government is not aware of the extent to which damage is done,8221; adds Bajaj. 8220;If they realised that they were losing money in the form of entertainment tax, they would probably take stricter action against defaulters.8221;