Pirated movie tapes seized; 4 held

HYDERABAD: Four persons were arrested and beta tapes of various Telugu movies were seized from them on Friday. The arrested have been identified as Y Ravi Babu, manager of Sumapriya Creations, J Balakrishna, a cameraman, D Krishna of Volga Videos and S Anjaiah, former production manager of Padmalaya Studios.
Police said the main accused J V Rama Rao, owner of the Sumapriya Creations, is at large.
Enquiries by the police revealed that Rama Rao, a producer himself, secures movie rights from the producers for firms making DVDs and VCDs and send them abroad.
Subsequently, he cultivated contacts with a few employees of these companies and lured them to get the master prints of the films whose rights were owned by the companies. Then the prints are recorded on the beta tapes and sold at exorbitant prices by Rama Rao.The AP Film Chambers tipped off the city police that Ravi Babu was going to deliver beta tapes of latest releases — Seethaiah, Sambaram and Okariki Okaru to a decoy at Panjagutta. The west zone task force laid a trap and nabbed Ravi Babu and later arrested the three others.