Disorganised film industry helps piracy

| 30 November 2004 23:09 IST

Piracy in the film industry is on rise in India, mainly because the industry is totally disorganised, besides lack of a strong legislation, feels Motion Pictures Association of America.

The MPA officials were yesterday surprised at the nil response from the Indian film industry, when they requested quite a few of them to accompany at the media briefing.

``This is an ugly side that film industry, which is directly affected by piracy, is not with us even at the briefing,’’ said Chander Lall, MPA’s India-level counsel. He had especially requested producer Subhash Ghai to accompany him.

On the other hand, central information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy has repeatedly announced that the government would shortly come out with a stringent legislation against film piracy.

At the 35th International Film Festival in India, which began here since yesterday, Reddy also released a 45-second long movie trailer on anti-piracy, theming piracy as a crime.

According to Lall, nine of 10 Indian films lose money due to increasing piracy. However, with the government efforts, piracy rate in India have fallen from 60 to 55 per cent, he added.

The losses worldwide due to piracy are estimated at around $ 3 billion while Asia-Pacific region itself has estimated annual losses to the tune of US $ 718 million, according to the MPA statistics.

As piracy becoming the easiest task with advanced technology of CD burning, Lall states the profits are almost 800 per cent.

Compared to India, maximum piracy exports take place in China, Malaysia and Thailand, states Lall.

Besides controlling piracy through legislation and enforcement, the MPA has also taken up awareness campaign among the pubic, which goes for pirated products rather than paying for costly tickets at the multiplexes.

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