Film industry wants to nail the Pirates of Bangalore

The Kannada film industry has welcomed the seizure of 25,000 pirated audio and video CDs by Bangalore police on Saturday. But its leaders are not impressed as they feel such raids occur only when police do not have any work.

Upset by lukewarm efforts of police to contain piracy, some film producers and audio company owners took law into their own hands a few years ago and raided shops selling pirated CDs on Silver Jubilee Park Road.

“We wanted to help the Kannada film industry but we were attacked by the piracy mafia there. They are very powerful. The police have to act tough with them to end the piracy menace,’’ said K Manju, one of the producers booked for trespassing.

Whenever they got an opportunity, Sandalwood producers kept reminding the state government to book the piracy mafia under Anti-Goonda Act. Despite promises by the state government, the Act has been never invoked against people indulging in audio-video piracy. Hence, producers feel that the government is not serious to find a permanent solution to end the piracy menace.
“I was among those booked for trespassing a few years ago. We have been demanding that the government forms a separate cell and court deals with piracy cases,” said Rockline Venkatesh, a film producer.

If film producers and audio company owners conduct raids at Hubli, Mangalore or Mysore, they have to attend the court at the respective place whenever the case comes for hearing. It will be an additional burden for them. But if the state government establishes a separate court in Bangalore to deal with piracy cases, the people involved in piracy have to come all the way to Bangalore. It will discourage many people from indulging in piracy,’’ he said.

The Kannada film industry has been losing more than Rs300 crore every year due to piracy. The more successful a film, more the pirated CDs in the market.

“Many audio companies had to close due to piracy. We have been requesting the government to act tough against the people indulging in piracy.,’’ said Velu, president, Karnataka Audio and Video Owners’ Association.

The AP model
KV Chandrasekhar, president of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, suggested the government to follow the Andhra Pradesh model to fight audio-video piracy.

The Anti-Video Piracy Cell, established by the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce in 2005, consists of retired police officers from the rank of superintendents to sub-inspectors.

“A control room has been functioning between 9 am and 9 pm all days in a week there. It collects information on piracy and communicates the same to anti-video piracy cell staff working in the state. We are in talks to replicate the same model in Karnataka. I am hopeful of making it a reality by this month-end,’’ said Chandrasekhar.