Piracy has always been a headache for filmmakers. The pirated prints spread like wildfire, crushing their effort within no time. The issue was highlighted last year when director cum producer Anwar Rasheed, who bankrolled the movie Premam, single-handedly took on the culprits who shared the censor copies. However, the issue is not settled yet. Malayalam cinema is still under its threat. The recently released movies such as Sakhavu, Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu, Comrade in America (CIA), Lakshyam and Godha have all fallen prey to piracy.
Why so? “In the case of Premam, Anwar Rasheed went on to do his maximum and caught the pirates with the help of a private agency. But, neither police nor government did any follow-up to curb the issue,” says director Amal Neerad. Premam was distributed by A&A Release. Amal had to face the piracy pest for his latest outing Comrade in America. The copy of CIA came online on the second day of its release.
“We have been tracking piracy perpetrators and removing the links from online for the past 30 days,” he says. This is not an isolated case. All movies face this situation. The fact is that it is a menace that cannot be eradicated but only be controlled. “Even we offer only 95% accuracy to our clients,” says Thushar P. Kumblolil, who runs the agency Stopiracy. “One major reason behind piracy is the lack of monitoring in theatres. They take prints even from multiplexes.” Amal Neerad concurs. “In theatres, you could see people shooting movies using mobile phones. Nobody prevents them. The audience should be coming to theatres to watch the movies, not to shoot them,” he says.
What is alarming is that mostly teenagers do this for a meagre amount. It is probably lack of awareness that urges them to indulge in this illegal trade. They open pseudo accounts, shoot the content and give it to torrent sites. “It is like a mafia,” says Thushar. “The site owners get good revenue from it. Children are targeted as they may not get caught easily while doing this. Even girls are assigned for this,” he adds. Everyone agrees that a unified effort is required to control this menace. “Everyone—filmmakers, police and government—should come together to fight it,” opines Amal Neerad.
Prakash Bare, who introduced the software Agent Jadoo to stop piracy, agrees. “The issue is there in all industries. In Malayalam, the producers have not been able to bring them together and find a permanent system. We are ready to put stickers on auto rickshaws for marketing, but not ready to chip in to stop piracy,” he says. “The content owner, law, law enforcement, technology and media should work together to control this situation,” he adds. Another reason is that people take piracy for granted. They don’t find it a grave issue. “It is because they have been doing this for a long time and nobody has stopped them,” says Prakash. “Also, content owners should do what they are supposed to do. They should protect the content. You won’t put your valuables on the roadside and then complain,” he adds.
It is absolutely true that people take it for granted, says Amal Neerad. “That is why they put the climax scene online,” he says. He also points to another factor that is destroying Malayalam cinema. “We do nothing to safeguard Malayalam cinema. In Kerala, there is no space for Malayalam films but so much space for films from other languages,” he says and adds that it is high time everyone gathered to save regional cinema. The Malayalam movies are denied shows and he believes that there is a power structure working behind it. “For a long time, wide release was meant for movies from other languages. Malayalam movies have started enjoying wide release quite lately. But, then we don’t get shows. Nobody is talking about it. It has become difficult to release a movie now,” he says and adds, “Let other language films play in theatres and Malayalam films take a backseat.”
