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22Nd Aug 2016
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| Indian Film (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
India's film industry, said to be the largest
globally with some 1,000 movies produced each year, earns around $2 billion
from legitimate sources such as screening at theatres, home videos and TV
rights. But with $2.7 billion, piracy earns 35% more, and a way out has proved
elusive.
Red Chillies Entertainment, a production
house promoted by actor Shah Rukh Khan, was a victim of film piracy with
'Dilwale' last year. It grossed Rs148 crore at the box office, but its pirated
version, circulated a day before its release, grossed a much higher amount,
stakeholders said.
Recent films like 'Kabali', 'Great Grand
Masti' and 'Udta Punjab' have all faced similar music.
"Content theft or piracy in the film
industry originates from 'camcording' in cinema halls. Over 90% of new release
titles originate from cinemas," said Uday Singh, Managing Director, Motion
Picture Distributors' Association (India).
"The infringing copies appear online
within few hours of a film release," Singh told IANS, and added: "The
Indian film industry loses around Rs18,000 crore ($2.7 billion) and over 60,000
jobs every year because of piracy."
This figure is also what the World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) brandishes in its magazine, quoting
noted filmmaker Anurag Basu. While the Indian film industry is, indeed,
flourishing, piracy points toward how much more its stakeholders can make, he
said.
According to the latest KPMG-Ficci report on
the Indian media and entertainment sector, the film industry here is projected
to grow from Rs138.2 billion ($2.09 billion) in 2015 to Rs 226.3 billion ($3.43
billion) by 2020 at an annual growth rate of 10.5%. But piracy could also grow
exponentially unless checked.
"Currently, the government is focused on
inclusive society initiatives, aimed at connecting villages via broadband. This
has the potential to incentivise piracy, as people would find it much easier to
watch a movie on their laptop than travel to far off theatres," the report
said.
"Hence, there is need for a collective,
structured, scientific, multi-pronged and proactive approach to combat
piracy."
Adding another dimension, Patrick Kilbride,
Executive Director for International IP with Global Intellectual Property
Center of the US Chamber of Commerce, said piracy also limits the economic
contribution which creativity can make in India.
"Issues such as copyright infringement,
film piracy, camcording and content leakage weaken the industry by hampering
the deserved revenue production," said Kilbride.
Stakeholders said some sophisticated
technologies like the watermarking of prints, which allow producers or rights
holders to monitor the usage and movement of each print across the globe, have
also not been able to stop piracy. The
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"New technologies, including
digitisation of film prints, have cut the cost of recording, storing and
copying of films for distribution. Risks involved in leaking and piracy have
also increased manifold," said Lavin Hirani, Head of Legal Affairs, Red
Chillies Entertainment.
"Unfortunately, these technologies are
not enough to protect the clandestine recording of pirated versions -- done 90%
of the times with a camcorder or high-quality mobile camera in a low-light
setting of a cinema theatre, or from the projector room," Hirani said.
There is also the recent prevalence of
pirated versions of Indian films swarming the market and the Internet a day or
two before their actual release, since distributors opt for a simultaneous
global screening, which requires the dispatch of prints some 10-12 days in
advance.
"Some territories like in the UAE, they
release films a day prior to the Indian release date -- which is typically a
Friday. This is one of the reasons why a film is leaked before its actual
release," he added.
Rajkumar Akella, Chairman of the Anti Video
Piracy Cell, Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, echoed a similar line of thought. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
"Earlier, one odd film would get
accidentally leaked before release date. But these days, pre-release piracy
leaks have become a recurring feature, which is very alarming for the
industry," Akella told IANS.
What then is the solution?
Anurag Basu told WIPO that people need to
understand piracy is a crime. The state blocks Web sites that allow downloads
of pirated films, which is good. This apart, DVD versions must be available
within a week or two after the formal release, as a wait of three-four months
is a bit long.
"Piracy is working because people can
buy a (pirated) DVD for Rs 100 and a whole family can watch it. We have to
offer that kind of entertainment at that price. It has to be as easy to get an
original DVD as it is to get a pirated one," he said. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
Hirani said there's no single method or step.
"Possible measures would require concerted efforts by all stakeholders,
including the state and central governments which lose tremendous amount of
money in taxes from the sale, distribution and exhibition of films."The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
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