Why piracy and how to stop it

Excitement about Alphonse Putheran’s Premam seemed to be unabated and unprecedented, especially among the teenage, mall frequenting crowd. But a setback came in the form of pirated copies that suddenly became available online. Producer Anwar Rasheed quit film associations in protest and then started the blame game.

Movie piracy isn’t new and it invariably happens whenever a movie is successful. Then everyone from the producers to the distributors cry foul, as it affects the growth of the Malayalam film industry.  

Aren’t there any measures to end this menace? “Yes! We have,” says film actor Prakash Bare, the founding member of Jadootech Solutions, the Kochi-based start-up that launched Agent Jadoo, an anti-piracy software. “There is no point in crying over spilt milk. People think about piracy only when their movies are affected. In fact, piracy has been around for years. I wonder why the producers’ association hasn’t bothered till now about it. Besides Jadoo, there are other technologies also available in the market. However, technology alone can do nothing; it needs the support of the government, producers and enforcers of law.”

“Jadoo has been effectively tracking and blocking those who are illegally uploading films, but unfortunately, most producers aren’t ready to pay for it as they do not take piracy as a serious threat. When Drishyam was leaked, some of them woke up and now more have come out for Premam. Prevention is always better than cure. It will happen only if together they fight piracy!”

Film editor and former Deputy Director of Chalachithra Academy, Beena Paul, advocates, “The first thing that we need is to spread awareness among the film fraternity about piracy and its negative effects. I doubt how many of them really know about this serious issue. It actually kills an entire industry. Hence, we need to invest money in it to upgrade our security systems, so that no one will ever dream of watching a pirated or illegal copy.”

Piracy is a global issue and many suggest that the government should look for preventative measures that foreign countries have adopted. Producer-cum-actor Vijay Babu says that we do not have to go outside South India to find a solution for piracy. The anti-piracy measures have been very well established in states like Andra Pradesh.

“In the Telugu industry, each print of the film that is made will be given a watermark and a number. Hence, it is easy to detect who copied and from which print it was replicated. It is high time that our producers’ association take some necessary measures to stop piracy. Every movie pays nearly Rs 75,000 to the association’s anti-piracy cell and I think that is all what an individual producer can do. With the support of the government, the association should approach a competent anti-piracy company.”

Vijay also feels that piracy can be eradicated, if the punishment for this is made severe. “This is a life threatening crime that ruins every producer. So, we should make it a criminal offence and each person who is caught should be punished!”  

Producer Shaji Natesan who distributed Premam is disappointed to find that the Cyber Cell of Kerala Police doesn’t even have proper hackers or the equipment to trace the culprits.

“It is an era of technological advancement and I feel really embarrassed to find that they neither have efficient employees nor equipment. Usually, we depend on private agencies for anti-piracy by paying more than Rs 2 lakh and even now after the complaints have been lodged, the police have no clue what to do.”