Effect Of Piracy On Indian Film Industry
Introduction
Indian film industry is considered as one of the biggest film industries among the world. Around 900-1100 films are produced every year in India. Film industry earns around 1,43,11,38,00,000. 00 Indian Rupees from legitimate sources such as television rights, screening at theatres, satellite rights and home videos etc. . However, according to industry sources, the rate at which film piracy industry is a huge problem as film piracy industry earns around $2. 7 billion which is more than what actual film industry earns. Example for this is Red Chillies Entertainment, a production house which in year 2016 became a victim of film piracy for its film ‘Dilwale’. Film earned upto Rs. 148 crore at the box office but its pirated version, which got circulated a day before its release, earned more than it. Films like Kaabil, zero and Udta Punjab have all faced a similar fate. Uday Singh, Managing Director, Motion Picture Distributors’ Association (India), said, “Content theft or piracy in the film industry originates from ‘camcording’ in cinema halls. ” He also said that the pirated copies of the films get uploaded online within a few hours of its release in theaters. He also added, “Due to piracy the Indian film industry incurs huge loses around Rs. 18000 crore ($2. 7 billion) and also over 60,000-70,000 employees lose their jobs every year. ” The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in its magazine, quoted the filmmaker Anurag Basu saying that. According to the latest KPMG-FICCI report on the Indian film Industry, it is projected to grow from around $2. 09 billion in 2015 to $3. 43 billion by 2020 if it grows at an annual growth rate of 10. 5% every year. But piracy rate of films could also grow exponentially if it is left unchecked.
Origin of pirated copies
Earlier, the origin of pirated copies of films emerged from prints which were sent to overseas markets, which slowly made their way into the Indian markets shortly after the film’s release. This days due to increase in technology piracy rate is also increasing. According to a recent survey conducted by the anti-piracy cell, People see pirated movies more in India “people watch pirated videos more on the move, in trains and planes, on smartphones and laptops. ” Today, every big film producers get a John Doe order from court before releasing their movie. According to Which the responsibility is on the internet service provider (ISP) to block access to every website or torrent pages that may facilitate illegal downloads of a pirated movie. Today dealing with piracy and copyright issues in the digital world is very tricky. Even if some torrent or websites are shut down, within few hours new websites are hosted which makes it very difficult to stop piracy. Abirami Ramanathan a film producer, distributor and exhibitor, said, “We have caught almost nearly 20 theatres in Tamil Nadu who are involved in doing acts of piracy, and some of them were even charged with the Goonda Act. But within few weeks, the people concerned with piracy came out on bail. In Bengaluru, as many as 7-8 Tamil films were pirated over the course of 2-3 months. The multiplex chain claimed that this acts were done by unknown individuals without respective multiplex workers knowledge. However, we have moved a criminal case and have solid evidence that these acts could not have taken place without their knowledge. ”
Where does the pirated DVD chain lead to?
A survey was conducted by The Times of India in Kolkata, they found out that the piracy chain which gets end with a street peddler or online websites begins with the highest level of film industry, the piracy industry has links to Mumbai, Singapore and Dubai. Even pirated DVDs with censor board watermarks were are found with street peddlers. So how do these DVDs come into the market? According to the source from the film industry stated that there may be some insiders in the censor board and distribution houses who are involved in this kind of activities sell these kind of copies for up to Rs. 5 -10 lakh to a few dealers. This copies are then uploaded to certain private portals which are highly secured and it has dedicated passkeys which keeps files uploaded in them very secured and untraceable. For a few lakhs, these copies can even be downloaded and replicated on DVD. A DVD dealer stated, “Middlemen from foreign countries are actively involved in the piracy business. ” Once the film is downloaded, a few copies of film are made, which are then sold to distributors who then makes more copies of this DVD in well-equipped warehouses. Finally, at the end of the chain cheap DVDs worth 50 ruppee hit the street-side stalls. Recently, Anjan Dutt, a national award-winning filmmaker from Kolkata, was shocked when he saw a pirated copy of his own film ‘Abar Byomkesh’ with censor board watermarks on it. He said, “This copies should not come out of the censor board they are meant to be kept secured. I will definitely look into this matter” However, the censor board denied any leaks from their side. Srikant Mohta who is the producer of Dutt's movie said that, “It is very much evident that the copies of the movies are leaked. We will have a serious talk with the censor board on this. ” Once their was home DVD movie market was worth Rs. 1400-1500 crore nationally but now it has shrunk to Rs. 250 crore. According to law even those who buy this pirated DVDs can be prosecuted but such steps are hardly undertaken by authorities.
Battle against piracy
Icon of Indian film Amitabh Bachchan has urged people to stop doing piracy and illegal streaming of films online. He had recently tweeted, “The magic of movies has always been watching an extraordinary story come to life on a giant screen. Illegally streaming or downloading stories is not cool and will never give you this experience. So, do your bit. Spread the word to stop piracy. ” A Delhi based private security firm recently claimed that it has develop anti-piracy software which tracks and block uploadering and downloadering of movies from torrent sites. previously it was earlier considered impossible to stop this kind of activities. Jitan Jain, Director, Voyager InfoSec Pvt Ltd. , said, “Our engineers have developed CopCorn technology inorder to track and bust movie pirates. CopCorn is a online piracy monitoring and controlling platform which is capable of tracking leaked movies online and stop people who are uploading or downloading them. We also have a specialised method to stop these people from downloading movies and spreading them. '
